New Mexico has a bitter gambling background. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by the House in 1989, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to cash in on the American Indian casino bandwagon. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a task force in 1990 to discuss a contract with New Mexico American Indian bands. When the panel arrived at an accord 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 Amerindian betting in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the accord with the Indian tribes, anti-gaming groups were able to tie the accord up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the compact, thus denying the government 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 ball rolling on a full accord amongst the State of New Mexico and its Indian tribes. 10 years had been burned for gaming in New Mexico, including American Indian casino Bingo.
The not for profit Bingo business has increased since 1999. That year, New Mexico non-profit game providers acquired only $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo revenues have grown constantly since that time. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the largest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.
Bingo is apparently favored in New Mexico. All kinds of owners look for a bit of the action. Hopefully, the politicians are done batting over gambling as a key issue like they did back in the 1990’s. That is probably hopeful thinking.