New Mexico has a rocky gaming past. When the IGRA was signed by the House in 1989, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the Indian casino bandwagon. Politics assured that would not be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a task force in 1990 to draft a contract with New Mexico Indian bands. When the panel came to an agreement with 2 prominent local tribes a year later, Governor King declined to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took office in Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that Indian gaming in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the contract with the Amerindian tribes, anti-wagering groups were able to tie the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing the compact, thereby costing the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.
It took the Compact Negotiation Act, passed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the ball rolling on a full contract amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Native tribes. 10 years had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Amerindian casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo business has increased from 1999. In that year, New Mexico charity game owners acquired only $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed one million dollars in 2001. Non-profit Bingo earnings have grown steadily since then. 2005 saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the providers.
Bingo is categorically beloved in New Mexico. All types of providers try for a bit of the action. Hopefully, the politicians are through batting around gambling as a key factor like they did in the 1990’s. That’s probably wishful thinking.
This entry was posted on October 4, 2026, 9:25 pm and is filed under Casino. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.