Bingo in New Mexico

by Brennen on November 11th, 2022

New Mexico has a stormy gaming background. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by Congress in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico might be one of the states to cash in on the Amerindian casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the case.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a task force in 1990 to create an accord with New Mexico Native tribes. When the working group arrived at an accord with 2 important local tribes a year later, the Governor declined to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.

When a new governor took over in Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that Native gaming in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the contract with the Amerindian bands, anti-wagering groups were able to hold the accord up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing the accord, thus denying the government of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues 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 contract amongst the State of New Mexico and its Native tribes. Ten years had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, including American Indian casino Bingo.

The non-profit Bingo business has gotten bigger from 1999. In that year, New Mexico charity game providers brought in only $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed one million dollars in 2001. Non-profit Bingo earnings have grown constantly since then. 2005 saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.

Bingo is certainly favored in New Mexico. All sorts of owners try for a slice of the pie. Hopefully, the politicos are done batting over gambling as an important matter like they did back in the 1990’s. That is most likely hopeful thinking.

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