New Mexico Bingo
Posted in Casino on 01/30/2025 02:25 am by Esperanza
New Mexico has a complex gaming past. When the IGRA was signed by the House in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the American Indian casino craze. Politics guaranteed that would not be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a panel in Nineteen Ninety to discuss a compact with New Mexico American Indian tribes. When the task force arrived at an accord with two important local bands a year later, the Governor 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 now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the accord with the Indian tribes, anti-gambling forces were able to hold the deal up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing a deal, thus costing the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It took the CNA, signed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the process moving on a full accord between the State of New Mexico and its Amerindian tribes. A decade had been squandered for gaming in New Mexico, including Amerindian casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo business has grown since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico charity game owners acquired only $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed a million dollars in 2001. Non-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 certainly favored in New Mexico. All kinds of operators try for a slice of the pie. Hopefully, the politicians are through batting over gambling as an important issue like they did in the 90’s. That’s probably wishful thinking.