New Mexico has a complex gambling past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by Congress in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the Native casino bandwagon. Politics assured that would not be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a panel in Nineteen Ninety to negotiate a contract with New Mexico Native tribes. When the panel arrived at an accord with two important local tribes a year later, Governor King declined to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took over in Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that American Indian gambling in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the contract with the Native tribes, anti-gaming groups were able to tie the accord up in courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing a deal, therefore costing the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It required the CNA, signed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the ball rolling on a full contract between the Government of New Mexico and its Indian bands. A decade had been burned for gaming in New Mexico, including Amerindian casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo business has grown since 1999. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game providers brought in only $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Non-profit Bingo revenues have grown constantly since then. 2005 saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the providers.
Bingo is clearly favored in New Mexico. All kinds of operators look for a piece of the pie. With hope, the politicos are through batting over gaming as an important matter like they did back in the 1990’s. That’s without doubt wishful thinking.