New Mexico Bingo
Tuesday, 16. March 2021
New Mexico has a bitter gambling past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the Native casino craze. Politics assured that would not be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a task force in 1990 to create an accord with New Mexico Amerindian tribes. When the task force came to an agreement with two important local tribes a year later, the Governor declined to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took office in Nineteen Ninety Five, it appeared that Amerindian betting in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the compact with the American Indian bands, anti-gambling forces were able to hold the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the compact, thereby costing the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.
It required the CNA, passed by the New Mexico house, to get the process moving on a full compact between the Government of New Mexico and its American Indian bands. A decade had been lost for gambling in New Mexico, which includes American Indian casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo industry has grown from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico charity game owners brought in just $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and passed a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Non-profit Bingo revenues have increased steadily since then. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the greatest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.
Bingo is clearly popular in New Mexico. All sorts of owners look for a bit of the pie. With hope, the politicos are done batting around gambling as an important matter like they did back in the 90’s. That is probably wishful thinking.
Posted in Casino by Phoenix