New Mexico has a rocky gaming 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 Amerindian casino bandwagon. Politics assured that would not be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a task force in 1990 to discuss an accord with New Mexico Amerindian bands. When the task force came to an agreement with 2 prominent local bands a year later, the Governor declined to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took over in Nineteen Ninety Five, it appeared that Amerindian wagering in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the accord with the Native tribes, anti-gaming groups were able to hold the deal up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing a deal, thus costing the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It took the CNA, signed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the process moving on a full accord between the State of New Mexico and its American Indian bands. A decade had been lost for gaming in New Mexico, which includes Native casino Bingo.
The not for profit Bingo business has increased since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico charity game providers acquired only $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have increased steadily since that time. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the largest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the providers.
Bingo is apparently beloved in New Mexico. All sorts of providers try for a piece of the pie. With hope, the politicians are done batting around gaming as a hot button issue like they did back in the 90’s. That is probably wishful thinking.
This entry was posted on November 19, 2020, 8:25 pm and is filed under Bingo. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.