New Mexico has a complex gaming history. When the IGRA was passed by the House in 1989, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the Amerindian casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that would not be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a task force in Nineteen Ninety to draft an accord with New Mexico American Indian bands. When the panel arrived at an agreement with 2 important local tribes a year later, Governor King declined to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took over in 1995, it seemed that Native betting in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the accord with the American Indian tribes, anti-wagering forces were able to hold the accord up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing a deal, thereby denying the state of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It took the Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico house, to get the process moving on a full accord between the State of New Mexico and its Indian bands. A decade had been burned for gaming in New Mexico, which includes American Indian casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo business has increased since 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 passed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Not for profit Bingo earnings have grown constantly since then. Two Thousand and Five saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the operators.
Bingo is categorically popular in New Mexico. All kinds of operators look for a bit of the pie. Hopefully, the politicos are done batting over gaming as an important matter like they did back in the 90’s. That is most likely wishful thinking.
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