New Mexico Bingo
Posted in Casino on 08/18/2020 03:25 pm by Esperanza
New Mexico has a complex gaming past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by Congress in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the American Indian casino craze. Politics guaranteed that would not be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a working group in Nineteen Ninety to create an accord with New Mexico Amerindian bands. When the working group came to an agreement with 2 prominent local tribes a year later, Governor King declined to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took office in 1995, it appeared that American Indian gaming in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the accord with the Indian bands, anti-gaming forces were able to hold the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing a deal, thus costing the state 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 process moving on a full accord amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Indian tribes. A decade had been squandered for gambling in New Mexico, which includes American Indian casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo business has gotten bigger from 1999. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game owners brought in just $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and passed a million dollars in 2001. Not for profit Bingo earnings have increased constantly since that time. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the largest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the operators.
Bingo is apparently popular in New Mexico. All kinds of owners look for a slice of the pie. Hopefully, the politicians are through batting around gambling as a hot button factor like they did in the 90’s. That’s without doubt wishful thinking.