Bingo in New Mexico

Read more about the
Las Vegas 2024 Super
Bowl Streaker!

New Mexico has a rocky gambling history. When the IGRA was passed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the Native casino bandwagon. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the situation.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a working group in Nineteen Ninety to discuss an accord with New Mexico American Indian tribes. When the panel came to an accord with 2 prominent local tribes a year later, the Governor refused to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until 1994.

When a new governor took over in Nineteen Ninety Five, it appeared that Indian gambling in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the contract with the Amerindian tribes, anti-gaming groups were able to tie the contract up in courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing the compact, thereby costing the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.

It required the Compact Negotiation Act, passed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the ball rolling on a full compact between the Government of New Mexico and its Native tribes. A decade had been squandered for gaming in New Mexico, including Native casino Bingo.

The nonprofit Bingo business has grown since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico charity game owners acquired just $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Not for profit Bingo earnings have increased constantly since then. Two Thousand and Five saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the providers.

Bingo is categorically favored in New Mexico. All kinds of providers look for a slice of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are done batting around gambling as a hot button matter like they did in the 1990’s. That is probably hopeful thinking.