Casino

Read more about the
Las Vegas 2024 Super
Bowl Streaker!

New Mexico has a complex gaming background. When the IGRA was signed by Congress in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the Native casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the case.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a panel in Nineteen Ninety to discuss an accord with New Mexico Amerindian tribes. When the panel came to an agreement with 2 prominent local tribes 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 1995, it seemed that Native gambling in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the contract with the Indian bands, anti-gaming groups were able to hold the contract up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing the accord, thereby denying the state of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.

It took the CNA, passed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the process moving on a full contract between the State of New Mexico and its Native bands. A decade had been squandered for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Native casino Bingo.

The not for profit Bingo industry has grown from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico not for profit game providers acquired just $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed a million dollars in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo earnings have increased constantly since that time. 2005 witnessed the largest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the providers.

Bingo is certainly favored in New Mexico. All kinds of providers try for a bit of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are done batting around gambling as a hot button issue like they did in the 90’s. That’s most likely wishful thinking.