Bingo in New Mexico

Read more about the
Las Vegas 2024 Super
Bowl Streaker!

New Mexico has a complex gaming history. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the American Indian casino craze. Politics assured that would not be the situation.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a working group in Nineteen Ninety to discuss an accord with New Mexico Native bands. When the panel arrived at an agreement with 2 important local bands a year later, Governor King declined to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until 1994.

When a new governor took office in Nineteen Ninety Five, it appeared that Indian gaming in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the contract with the American Indian bands, anti-gaming forces were able to hold the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had overstepped 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 CNA, passed by the New Mexico government, to get the process moving on a full contract amongst the State of New Mexico and its Amerindian tribes. A decade had been squandered for gambling in New Mexico, including American Indian casino Bingo.

The nonprofit Bingo business has increased from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico not for profit game operators acquired only $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed one million dollars in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo revenues have grown steadily since that time. 2005 witnessed the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.

Bingo is apparently beloved in New Mexico. All types of owners try for a bit of the pie. Hopefully, the politicians are through batting over gaming as an important factor like they did back in the 1990’s. That’s most likely wishful thinking.