New Mexico has a bitter gambling background. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the Native casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that would not be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a panel in 1990 to draft a compact with New Mexico Native tribes. When the task force arrived at an agreement with 2 prominent local bands a year later, the Governor declined to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took office in 1995, it appeared that Native gaming in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the contract with the Native tribes, anti-gaming 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 compact, thus costing the state of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.
It took the CNA, passed by the New Mexico government, to get the ball rolling on a full accord between the State of New Mexico and its Amerindian bands. 10 years had been squandered for gambling in New Mexico, including Indian casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo industry has grown from 1999. That year, New Mexico non-profit game operators acquired just $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo revenues have increased steadily since that time. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the owners.
Bingo is categorically beloved in New Mexico. All sorts of providers try for a piece of the pie. Hopefully, the politicians are done batting around gambling as an important matter like they did in the 90’s. That’s probably wishful thinking.
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