New Mexico Bingo
Posted in Casino on 10/27/2019 09:25 pm by Jude
New Mexico has a bitter gaming background. When the IGRA was passed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the Indian casino bandwagon. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a working group in 1990 to negotiate an accord with New Mexico Amerindian bands. When the task force came to an agreement with 2 important local tribes a year later, the Governor refused to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took office in 1995, it appeared that Native gambling in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the compact with the Indian tribes, anti-gambling groups were able to tie the contract up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing the 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 Compact Negotiation Act, passed by the New Mexico government, to get the process moving on a full accord between the Government of New Mexico and its Amerindian tribes. A decade had been burned for gaming in New Mexico, including Indian casino Bingo.
The not for profit Bingo industry has gotten bigger since 1999. In that year, New Mexico charity game providers acquired only $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed a million dollars in 2001. Non-profit Bingo revenues have grown steadily since that time. Two Thousand and Five saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the providers.
Bingo is certainly popular in New Mexico. All sorts of operators try for a slice of the action. Hopefully, the politicians are through batting around gambling as a hot button factor like they did back in the 90’s. That is most likely wishful thinking.