New Mexico Bingo

Read more about the
Las Vegas 2024 Super
Bowl Streaker!

New Mexico has a bitter gaming history. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, 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 appointed a working group in Nineteen Ninety to discuss a contract with New Mexico Indian tribes. When the panel came to an accord with two prominent local tribes a year later, the Governor refused to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.

When a new governor took over in Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that Indian gambling in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the contract with the American Indian bands, anti-gambling groups were able to hold the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing the accord, thus denying the state of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.

It took the CNA, passed by the New Mexico government, to get the process moving on a full compact between the State of New Mexico and its American Indian bands. A decade had been lost for gaming in New Mexico, which includes Amerindian casino Bingo.

The nonprofit Bingo industry has increased from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico non-profit game owners brought in only $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Non-profit Bingo earnings have grown constantly since that time. 2005 witnessed the biggest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the operators.

Bingo is clearly popular in New Mexico. All sorts of owners try for a piece of the action. With hope, the politicians are through batting over gambling as an important matter like they did back in the 1990’s. That’s most likely wishful thinking.