New Mexico has a rocky gaming past. When the IGRA was passed by Congress in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the Native casino bandwagon. Politics assured that would not be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a working group in Nineteen Ninety to create a compact with New Mexico Native bands. When the working group came to an accord with 2 important local bands a year later, the Governor declined to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took over in 1995, it seemed that Indian betting in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the contract with the Indian tribes, anti-gaming forces were able to tie the contract up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the compact, thus costing the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It took the CNA, passed by the New Mexico house, to get the process moving on a full contract between the Government of New Mexico and its American Indian tribes. Ten years had been burned for gaming in New Mexico, which includes Native casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo business has gotten bigger since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico charity game operators brought in just $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Non-profit Bingo earnings have increased constantly since that time. Two Thousand and Five saw the greatest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.
Bingo is categorically popular in New Mexico. All types of owners look for a slice of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are done batting around gambling as an important matter like they did in the 90’s. That’s without doubt hopeful thinking.
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