15
February
Written by Cyrus.
Posted in: Casino
New Mexico has a bitter gaming background. When the IGRA was signed by the House in 1989, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the American Indian casino bandwagon. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a task force in 1990 to create a contract with New Mexico Indian bands. When the task force arrived at an agreement with 2 big local tribes a year later, the Governor declined to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took over in 1995, it appeared that Indian betting in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the contract with the Native bands, anti-gambling groups were able to hold the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing a deal, therefore denying the state of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.
It took the CNA, signed by the New Mexico house, to get the process moving on a full accord amongst the State of New Mexico and its Native tribes. A decade had been lost for gaming in New Mexico, including Indian casino Bingo.
The not for profit Bingo business has grown from 1999. In that year, New Mexico charity game operators brought in just $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have increased steadily since that time. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the owners.
Bingo is clearly favored in New Mexico. All kinds of providers look for a bit of the action. Hopefully, the politicians are done batting over gambling as a hot button issue like they did back in the 1990’s. That’s probably wishful thinking.
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