New Mexico has a complex gambling past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by the House in 1989, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the Native casino craze. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a task force in Nineteen Ninety to create a compact with New Mexico Amerindian tribes. When the panel arrived at an agreement with two important local bands a year later, the Governor refused to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took over in 1995, it seemed that American Indian gambling in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the contract with the Native bands, anti-wagering groups were able to tie the accord up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing the compact, therefore 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 between the Government of New Mexico and its American Indian bands. A decade had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Native casino Bingo.
The not for profit Bingo industry has gotten bigger from 1999. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game owners acquired only $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in 2001. Non-profit Bingo earnings have grown steadily since that time. Two Thousand and Five saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the operators.
Bingo is apparently popular in New Mexico. All sorts of owners look for a bit of the pie. Hopefully, the politicos are through batting over gaming as a hot button issue like they did in the 1990’s. That’s without doubt hopeful thinking.
This entry was posted on March 27, 2026, 9:25 am 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.