New Mexico has a complex gambling past. When the IGRA was passed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the American Indian casino bandwagon. Politics assured that would not be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a panel in Nineteen Ninety to create a contract with New Mexico Native bands. When the task force arrived at an accord with two important local tribes a year later, the Governor declined to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took office in 1995, it appeared that Native betting in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the contract with the Amerindian bands, anti-wagering forces were able to hold the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing the accord, therefore costing the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.
It required the CNA, passed by the New Mexico government, to get the process moving on a full contract amongst the State of New Mexico and its Indian bands. A decade had been lost for gaming in New Mexico, including Amerindian casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo business has gotten bigger from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game owners acquired only $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed a million dollars in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo revenues have increased steadily since then. Two Thousand and Five saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the providers.
Bingo is apparently popular in New Mexico. All sorts of owners look for a slice of the pie. Hopefully, the politicos are done batting around gaming as a hot button factor like they did in the 90’s. That’s probably hopeful thinking.
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