[ English ]

New Mexico has a complex gaming past. When the IGRA was signed 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 assured that would not be the case.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a panel in Nineteen Ninety to draft an accord with New Mexico Native tribes. When the task force arrived at an agreement with two big local bands a year later, Governor King declined to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.

When a new governor took office in 1995, it seemed that American Indian gaming in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the contract with the Indian tribes, anti-gaming groups were able to hold the deal up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing a deal, thus denying the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.

It took the CNA, signed by the New Mexico house, to get the ball rolling on a full contract between the Government of New Mexico and its Indian bands. Ten years had been burned for gaming in New Mexico, including Amerindian casino Bingo.

The nonprofit Bingo industry has gotten bigger since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico charity game owners brought in only $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have increased steadily since that time. 2005 saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the owners.

Bingo is apparently beloved in New Mexico. All sorts of operators look for a slice of the action. Hopefully, the politicians are through batting around gambling as a hot button issue like they did in the 90’s. That’s most likely hopeful thinking.