New Mexico has a bitter gambling background. When the IGRA was signed by the House in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the Native casino craze. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a working group in Nineteen Ninety to discuss a contract with New Mexico Native bands. When the working group came to an agreement with 2 important local tribes a year later, Governor King refused to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took office in 1995, it appeared that Indian betting in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the contract with the Native tribes, anti-wagering groups were able to tie the accord up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing the compact, thereby costing the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.
It required the CNA, signed by the New Mexico house, to get the process moving on a full contract between the State of New Mexico and its Amerindian bands. Ten years had been lost for gaming in New Mexico, which includes American Indian casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo industry has increased since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico non-profit game operators acquired just $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in 2001. Non-profit Bingo revenues have grown constantly since that time. 2005 saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the providers.
Bingo is apparently popular in New Mexico. All sorts of providers look for a piece of the action. Hopefully, the politicians are done batting over gambling as a hot button factor like they did back in the 1990’s. That is probably wishful thinking.
This entry was posted on January 17, 2024, 12:25 pm and is filed under Casino. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.