New Mexico has a bitter gaming history. When the IGRA was passed by the House in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the Indian casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that would not be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a panel in Nineteen Ninety to create an accord with New Mexico Amerindian tribes. When the panel came to an agreement with two prominent local bands a year later, Governor King refused to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took over in 1995, it seemed that Native gaming in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the accord with the Indian tribes, anti-wagering groups were able to tie the deal up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing the deal, thereby denying the government of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.
It took the CNA, passed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the process moving on a full accord amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Indian bands. A decade had been lost for gaming in New Mexico, including Indian casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo industry has grown from 1999. In that year, New Mexico charity game owners brought in only $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Non-profit Bingo revenues have grown constantly since that time. 2005 witnessed the biggest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the providers.
Bingo is apparently popular in New Mexico. All sorts of operators look for a piece of the pie. Hopefully, the politicos are through batting around gambling as an important issue like they did back in the 1990’s. That’s without doubt hopeful thinking.
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