New Mexico Bingo

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New Mexico has a bitter gaming history. When the IGRA was passed by the House in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico might be one of the states to cash in on the Native casino craze. Politics guaranteed that would not be the situation.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a working group in Nineteen Ninety to discuss a compact with New Mexico Native tribes. When the panel arrived at an agreement with 2 big local tribes a year later, Governor King refused to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.

When a new governor took over in 1995, it appeared that American Indian gaming in New Mexico was 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 Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing the deal, thus denying the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.

It required the Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the process moving on a full accord between the Government of New Mexico and its Amerindian tribes. Ten years 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. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game owners brought in just $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo revenues have increased constantly since that time. Two Thousand and Five saw the greatest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the providers.

Bingo is categorically favored in New Mexico. All sorts of owners look for a bit of the action. With hope, the politicians are done batting over gambling as a key matter like they did in the 90’s. That’s without doubt hopeful thinking.