Bingo in New Mexico
Wednesday, 7. September 2022
New Mexico has a complex gaming background. When the IGRA was passed by the House in 1989, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the Amerindian casino bandwagon. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a panel in Nineteen Ninety to discuss an accord with New Mexico American Indian bands. When the working group came to an agreement with 2 prominent local bands a year later, Governor King refused to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took over in 1995, it seemed that Native betting in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the compact with the Native tribes, anti-wagering groups were able to hold the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the accord, therefore denying the government 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 government, to get the ball rolling on a full contract amongst the Government of New Mexico and its American Indian tribes. A decade had been squandered for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Amerindian casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo industry has gotten bigger from 1999. In that year, New Mexico non-profit game providers brought in just $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo revenues have grown steadily since that time. 2005 saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the owners.
Bingo is clearly popular in New Mexico. All types of providers try for a piece of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are through batting around gambling as an important matter like they did in the 1990’s. That’s probably wishful thinking.
Posted in Casino by Jett