[ English ]

New Mexico has a stormy gaming past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by the House in 1989, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the Amerindian casino craze. Politics assured that would not be the situation.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a task force in Nineteen Ninety to create an accord with New Mexico Indian bands. When the panel arrived at an agreement with 2 important local bands a year later, the Governor refused 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 American Indian gambling in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the contract with the Indian bands, anti-gaming groups were able to tie the contract up in courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing the deal, therefore costing the state of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.

It required the CNA, signed by the New Mexico government, to get the process moving on a full contract amongst the State of New Mexico and its Amerindian bands. 10 years had been burned for gaming in New Mexico, which includes American Indian casino Bingo.

The nonprofit Bingo business has grown since 1999. That year, New Mexico non-profit game operators acquired just $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Not for profit Bingo earnings have grown constantly since then. 2005 saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the providers.

Bingo is categorically beloved in New Mexico. All sorts of providers try for a bit of the pie. Hopefully, the politicians are through batting around gambling as a key factor like they did in the 1990’s. That is probably hopeful thinking.