New Mexico Bingo

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New Mexico has a rocky gambling past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by Congress in 1989, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to cash in on the American Indian casino craze. Politics guaranteed that would not be the situation.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a working group in Nineteen Ninety to negotiate a compact with New Mexico Amerindian tribes. When the working group arrived at an accord with two big local bands a year later, the Governor declined to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.

When a new governor took over in Nineteen Ninety Five, it appeared that Indian gambling in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the compact with the Native bands, anti-wagering groups were able to hold the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing the deal, therefore denying the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.

It took the Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico government, to get the ball rolling on a full compact amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Amerindian bands. Ten years had been lost for gaming in New Mexico, including Indian casino Bingo.

The non-profit Bingo business has grown from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico non-profit game owners acquired just $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have increased steadily since then. 2005 saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the providers.

Bingo is clearly popular in New Mexico. All sorts of operators try for a slice of the pie. Hopefully, the politicians are through batting around gambling as an important matter like they did back in the 90’s. That’s most likely wishful thinking.