Bingo in New Mexico

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New Mexico has a bitter gambling background. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to cash in on the American Indian casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that would not be the situation.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a panel in Nineteen Ninety to discuss a contract with New Mexico Native tribes. When the panel arrived at an agreement with two important local tribes a year later, the Governor refused to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until 1994.

When a new governor took office in Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that Native gambling in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the contract with the Amerindian tribes, anti-gaming groups were able to tie the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the compact, thereby costing the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.

It took the Compact Negotiation Act, passed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the ball rolling on a full accord between the Government of New Mexico and its American Indian tribes. A decade had been lost for gaming in New Mexico, which includes American Indian casino Bingo.

The nonprofit Bingo industry has grown from 1999. In that year, New Mexico charity game operators brought in just $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have increased constantly since then. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the greatest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the operators.

Bingo is apparently popular in New Mexico. All sorts of operators look for a piece of the pie. With hope, the politicians are through batting over gaming as a hot button factor like they did back in the 90’s. That’s probably wishful thinking.