Bingo in New Mexico

Read more about the
Las Vegas 2024 Super
Bowl Streaker!

New Mexico has a bitter gambling history. When the IGRA was signed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the American Indian casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the case.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a working group in 1990 to draft a compact with New Mexico Amerindian tribes. When the task force arrived at an agreement with two big local tribes a year later, the Governor declined to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until 1994.

When a new governor took over in 1995, it seemed that Amerindian gambling in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the contract with the American Indian tribes, anti-gaming groups were able to hold the deal up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing the deal, therefore denying the government of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.

It required the Compact Negotiation Act, passed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the process moving on a full accord amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Indian tribes. A decade had been lost for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Indian casino Bingo.

The not for profit Bingo business has gotten bigger since 1999. That year, New Mexico charity game owners acquired only $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed one million dollars in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have grown constantly since that time. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the largest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the providers.

Bingo is categorically popular in New Mexico. All sorts of owners look for a piece of the action. Hopefully, the politicians are done batting over gambling as a key matter like they did back in the 1990’s. That’s without doubt wishful thinking.