New Mexico Bingo

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New Mexico has a rocky gaming past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by Congress in 1989, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to cash in on the Native casino bandwagon. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the case.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a task force in Nineteen Ninety to draft an accord with New Mexico American Indian bands. When the panel arrived at an agreement with two important local tribes a year later, Governor King declined to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.

When a new governor took office in 1995, it appeared that Amerindian wagering in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the accord with the Native tribes, anti-wagering groups were able to tie the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing a deal, thereby denying the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.

It took the CNA, signed by the New Mexico government, to get the process moving on a full accord between the State of New Mexico and its Native bands. A decade had been burned for gaming in New Mexico, which includes American Indian casino Bingo.

The nonprofit Bingo business has gotten bigger from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico not for profit game owners brought in only $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Non-profit Bingo revenues have grown steadily since then. Two Thousand and Five saw the greatest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.

Bingo is categorically popular in New Mexico. All kinds of owners look for a slice of the action. With hope, the politicos are done batting around gambling as an important issue like they did back in the 1990’s. That’s most likely hopeful thinking.