New Mexico has a complex gaming background. When the IGRA was signed by Congress in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the Native casino bandwagon. Politics assured that would not be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a working group in Nineteen Ninety to discuss an accord with New Mexico Native bands. When the working group arrived at an agreement with 2 big local bands a year later, the Governor declined to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took over in Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that Amerindian gambling in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the contract with the American Indian bands, anti-gaming groups were able to tie the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the deal, thus costing the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.
It took the Compact Negotiation Act, passed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the ball rolling on a full contract amongst the State of New Mexico and its Indian tribes. A decade had been lost for gambling in New Mexico, including American Indian casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo industry has grown from 1999. That year, New Mexico charity game owners acquired only $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed one million dollars in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo earnings have increased constantly since that time. 2005 witnessed the biggest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the owners.
Bingo is categorically popular in New Mexico. All types of providers look for a bit of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are done batting around gambling as a key factor like they did in the 1990’s. That is most likely hopeful thinking.
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