[ English ]

New Mexico has a complex gambling past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the American Indian casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the case.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a working group in 1990 to create a contract with New Mexico Native bands. When the working group arrived at an accord with two prominent local bands a year later, Governor King declined to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.

When a new governor took over in Nineteen Ninety Five, it appeared that Indian betting in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the compact with the Amerindian bands, anti-gambling forces were able to hold the accord up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing the compact, therefore denying the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.

It took the Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the ball rolling on a full contract between the State of New Mexico and its Amerindian bands. Ten years had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, including Indian casino Bingo.

The not for profit Bingo business has increased from 1999. That year, New Mexico non-profit game operators brought in just $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo revenues have increased steadily since that time. 2005 saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the owners.

Bingo is certainly popular in New Mexico. All types of operators look for a bit of the action. Hopefully, the politicians are done batting around gaming as a hot button issue like they did in the 1990’s. That’s most likely hopeful thinking.