Bingo in New Mexico
Monday, 24. February 2020
New Mexico has a bitter gambling past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by the House in 1989, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the Amerindian casino craze. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a working group in Nineteen Ninety to draft an accord with New Mexico Native bands. When the panel arrived at an agreement with two important local tribes a year later, the Governor refused to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took office in Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that Indian betting in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the accord with the Native tribes, anti-gaming forces were able to tie the accord up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing the accord, thus costing the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It took the CNA, passed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the ball rolling on a full contract amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Native bands. A decade had been squandered for gaming in New Mexico, including Indian casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo business has increased from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico non-profit game operators brought in just $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and passed a million dollars in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have grown steadily since that time. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the greatest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the operators.
Bingo is clearly favored in New Mexico. All kinds of providers look for a piece of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are done batting over gambling as a key matter like they did in the 1990’s. That is without doubt hopeful thinking.
Posted in Casino by Dayana