New Mexico has a rocky gambling past. When the IGRA was passed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the Native casino craze. Politics assured that would not be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a working group in Nineteen Ninety to discuss a compact with New Mexico Indian tribes. When the working group came to an agreement with 2 big local tribes a year later, the Governor refused to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took office in Nineteen Ninety Five, it appeared that American Indian gambling in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the compact with the Native tribes, anti-gaming groups were able to hold the accord 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 many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It took the CNA, signed by the New Mexico house, to get the process moving on a full accord amongst the State of New Mexico and its Indian bands. Ten years had been squandered for gaming in New Mexico, including Amerindian casino Bingo.
The not for profit Bingo business has gotten bigger from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game operators acquired just $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed one million dollars in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo revenues have grown constantly since that time. 2005 witnessed the greatest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the operators.
Bingo is certainly popular in New Mexico. All kinds of owners look for a piece of the pie. Hopefully, the politicos are done batting over gambling as a key issue like they did in the 1990’s. That’s probably wishful thinking.
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