New Mexico has a stormy gaming past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by Congress in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico might be one of the states to cash in on the Native casino craze. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a task force in Nineteen Ninety to discuss an accord with New Mexico Amerindian bands. When the panel arrived at an agreement with two important local bands a year later, Governor King 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 seemed that Indian betting in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the accord with the American Indian bands, anti-gambling forces were able to hold the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the accord, thus denying the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.
It took the CNA, signed by the New Mexico government, to get the ball rolling on a full accord between the Government of New Mexico and its American Indian bands. 10 years had been burned for gaming in New Mexico, including Native casino Bingo.
The not for profit Bingo industry has grown from 1999. In that year, New Mexico non-profit game operators acquired only $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo earnings have increased constantly since that time. Two Thousand and Five saw the greatest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the providers.
Bingo is apparently favored in New Mexico. All sorts of operators look for a slice of the pie. Hopefully, the politicians are through batting around gambling as a key factor like they did in the 1990’s. That is without doubt wishful thinking.
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