New Mexico has a stormy gambling past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by the House in 1989, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the Amerindian casino bandwagon. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a panel in Nineteen Ninety to discuss an accord with New Mexico Indian tribes. When the working group arrived at an accord with two prominent local tribes a year later, the Governor 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 Amerindian wagering in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the contract with the Native tribes, anti-gaming forces were able to hold the accord up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing the deal, thus denying the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It required the Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico house, to get the process moving on a full accord amongst the State of New Mexico and its Native tribes. A decade had been burned for gaming in New Mexico, including Amerindian casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo industry has increased since 1999. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game operators brought in just $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in 2001. Non-profit Bingo revenues have increased steadily since then. 2005 saw the greatest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the providers.
Bingo is categorically beloved in New Mexico. All types of providers try for a bit of the pie. With hope, the politicians are through batting over gambling as an important factor like they did back in the 90’s. That is without doubt wishful thinking.
This entry was posted on July 28, 2026, 5:25 am and is filed under Casino. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.