New Mexico has a stormy gaming background. When the IGRA was signed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the Amerindian casino craze. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a working group in Nineteen Ninety to create a contract with New Mexico American Indian tribes. When the panel came to an accord with two prominent local bands a year later, Governor King declined to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took over in Nineteen Ninety Five, it appeared that American Indian betting in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the compact with the Native tribes, anti-gaming forces were able to tie the accord up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing the compact, 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, signed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the ball rolling on a full contract between the Government of New Mexico and its Indian bands. A decade had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Indian casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo business has increased from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico non-profit game providers acquired just $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo earnings have grown steadily since then. Two Thousand and Five saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the providers.
Bingo is certainly popular in New Mexico. All kinds of owners try for a piece of the pie. With hope, the politicos are done batting around gaming as a hot button issue like they did in the 1990’s. That is probably hopeful thinking.
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