Bingo in New Mexico

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New Mexico has a stormy gaming background. When the IGRA was passed by the House in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the Native casino bandwagon. Politics assured that would not be the case.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a working group in 1990 to create a compact with New Mexico Native tribes. When the working group arrived at an accord with two big local bands 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 Nineteen Ninety Five, it appeared that Native wagering in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the accord with the American Indian tribes, anti-gambling groups were able to hold the accord up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the accord, thus 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 legislature, to get the process moving on a full contract amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Amerindian bands. A decade had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Native casino Bingo.

The not for profit Bingo industry has gotten bigger since 1999. In that year, New Mexico charity game owners brought in only $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Not for profit Bingo earnings have grown constantly since then. 2005 saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the owners.

Bingo is certainly favored in New Mexico. All sorts of providers try for a bit of the pie. Hopefully, the politicians are through batting around gambling as an important issue like they did back in the 90’s. That’s probably wishful thinking.