New Mexico has a bitter gambling background. When the IGRA was signed by the House in 1989, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the American Indian casino craze. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a working group in Nineteen Ninety to create an accord with New Mexico American Indian tribes. When the panel came to an accord with two important local tribes a year later, the Governor declined to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took over in 1995, it seemed that American Indian gaming in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the accord with the American Indian tribes, anti-wagering groups were able to tie the accord up in courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the compact, thus costing the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.
It required the CNA, passed by the New Mexico house, to get the ball rolling on a full contract between the Government of New Mexico and its Native tribes. 10 years had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, including Native casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo business has increased from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game providers acquired only $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Not for profit Bingo earnings have increased constantly since then. 2005 witnessed the largest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the providers.
Bingo is apparently popular in New Mexico. All types of operators try for a slice of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are done batting around gaming as an important issue like they did in the 90’s. That’s probably hopeful thinking.
0 Responses
Stay in touch with the conversation, subscribe to the RSS feed for comments on this post.
You must be logged in to post a comment.