New Mexico Bingo
New Mexico has a stormy gambling background. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by Congress in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the Amerindian casino craze. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a panel in 1990 to draft a compact with New Mexico Amerindian bands. When the panel arrived at an agreement with 2 important local bands a year later, Governor King refused 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 Indian wagering in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the compact with the Amerindian tribes, anti-wagering groups were able to tie the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing a deal, therefore 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, passed by the New Mexico house, to get the process moving on a full contract amongst the State of New Mexico and its American Indian bands. A decade had been squandered for gaming in New Mexico, which includes Indian casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo industry has grown 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 passed a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo earnings have increased constantly since that time. 2005 saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.
Bingo is certainly beloved in New Mexico. All kinds of owners try for a slice of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are through batting around gaming as a hot button matter like they did in the 1990’s. That’s probably wishful thinking.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
