[ English ]

New Mexico has a rocky gambling background. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to cash in on the Indian casino craze. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the case.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a working group in Nineteen Ninety to create an accord with New Mexico Native tribes. When the working group came to an accord with 2 prominent local tribes a year later, Governor King refused to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until 1994.

When a new governor took over in 1995, it appeared that Native betting in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the contract with the Amerindian bands, anti-gambling forces were able to hold the contract up in courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing the accord, thereby costing the government of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.

It took the Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico house, to get the process moving on a full compact between the Government of New Mexico and its Indian tribes. 10 years had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, including American Indian casino Bingo.

The nonprofit Bingo industry has gotten bigger from 1999. That year, New Mexico not for profit game operators brought in only $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded one million dollars in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo revenues have increased steadily since then. 2005 saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the providers.

Bingo is clearly favored in New Mexico. All sorts of operators try for a bit of the pie. Hopefully, the politicians are done batting over gambling as an important issue like they did back in the 90’s. That is probably hopeful thinking.