[ English ]

New Mexico has a rocky gaming background. When the IGRA was passed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to cash in on the American Indian casino bandwagon. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the situation.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a task force in 1990 to draft an accord with New Mexico Amerindian bands. When the task force arrived at an agreement with two prominent local bands a year later, Governor King refused to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.

When a new governor took office in 1995, it appeared that American Indian betting in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the accord with the Amerindian tribes, anti-wagering forces 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, therefore denying the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.

It took the Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the ball rolling on a full contract amongst the State of New Mexico and its Native bands. Ten years had been squandered for gaming in New Mexico, which includes American Indian casino Bingo.

The nonprofit Bingo industry has gotten bigger since 1999. In that year, New Mexico non-profit game operators acquired just $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Non-profit Bingo revenues have increased constantly since that time. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the biggest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the operators.

Bingo is certainly beloved in New Mexico. All kinds of operators look for a piece of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are through batting around gaming as an important issue like they did in the 1990’s. That is most likely wishful thinking.