New Mexico has a stormy gaming history. When the IGRA was passed by the House in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the American Indian casino craze. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a working group in Nineteen Ninety to create a contract with New Mexico Amerindian tribes. When the task force came to 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 office in 1995, it seemed that Native gaming in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the contract with the Amerindian tribes, anti-wagering 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 deal, thereby denying the government of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.
It required the CNA, signed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the ball rolling on a full contract between the Government of New Mexico and its Native tribes. A decade had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Native casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo business has gotten bigger since 1999. That year, New Mexico non-profit game operators acquired just $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed a million dollars in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo revenues have grown steadily since then. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the largest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the providers.
Bingo is categorically beloved in New Mexico. All kinds of owners try for a slice of the action. With hope, the politicos are through batting over gambling as a key issue like they did back in the 90’s. That’s without doubt wishful thinking.
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