New Mexico Bingo
Posted in Casino on 06/23/2019 09:25 am by Dakota
New Mexico has a rocky gambling past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by Congress in 1989, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to cash in on the Indian casino bandwagon. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a task force in Nineteen Ninety to discuss a compact with New Mexico Amerindian bands. When the task force arrived at an accord with 2 important local bands a year later, the Governor refused to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took office in Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that American Indian wagering in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the accord with the Native bands, anti-gaming forces were able to tie the accord up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing the deal, thus costing the government of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.
It required the Compact Negotiation Act, passed by the New Mexico house, to get the ball rolling on a full accord between the State of New Mexico and its American Indian tribes. A decade had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, which includes American Indian casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo industry has increased since 1999. In that year, New Mexico non-profit game providers acquired just $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo earnings have increased constantly since that time. Two Thousand and Five saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the providers.
Bingo is apparently popular in New Mexico. All kinds of owners try for a slice of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are done batting around gaming as an important matter like they did back in the 1990’s. That’s without doubt wishful thinking.