New Mexico has a complex gambling history. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by Congress in 1989, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the American Indian casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a panel in 1990 to negotiate an accord with New Mexico American Indian bands. When the task force came to an agreement with 2 prominent local bands a year later, Governor King declined to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took office in 1995, it seemed that American Indian betting in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the contract with the Amerindian bands, anti-gaming forces were able to tie the deal up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing the compact, therefore costing the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.
It took the CNA, passed by the New Mexico house, to get the ball rolling on a full accord amongst the Government of New Mexico and its American Indian tribes. A decade had been lost 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 owners acquired just $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Not for profit Bingo earnings have grown steadily since then. Two Thousand and Five saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.
Bingo is clearly popular in New Mexico. All sorts of owners look for a bit of the action. With hope, the politicos are done batting around gambling as an important matter like they did in the 1990’s. That’s most likely hopeful thinking.
This entry was posted on July 26, 2025, 7:25 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.