New Mexico has a bitter gambling history. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the Native casino craze. Politics assured that would not be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a task force in 1990 to negotiate an accord with New Mexico Native tribes. When the working group arrived at an accord with two big local tribes a year later, the Governor refused to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took office in Nineteen Ninety Five, it appeared that Indian betting in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the contract with the Native tribes, anti-gambling groups were able to hold the contract up in courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing the deal, therefore costing the state 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 amongst the State of New Mexico and its Indian tribes. A decade had been lost for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Indian casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo industry has increased since 1999. That year, New Mexico not for profit game owners acquired only $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded one million dollars in 2001. Non-profit Bingo revenues have grown constantly since that time. Two Thousand and Five saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the owners.
Bingo is apparently popular in New Mexico. All kinds of operators look for a piece of the pie. With hope, the politicians are through batting over gaming as an important matter like they did back in the 90’s. That is most likely hopeful thinking.
This entry was posted on January 12, 2018, 3:25 pm and is filed under Bingo. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.