[ English ]

New Mexico has a stormy gambling past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it seemed like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the Native casino craze. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the case.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a panel in 1990 to create a compact with New Mexico Amerindian tribes. When the working group arrived at an agreement with 2 big local bands a year later, Governor King declined to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until 1994.

When a new governor took over in Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that American Indian betting in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the contract with the Native bands, anti-gaming groups were able to hold the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the deal, thus costing the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.

It required the CNA, passed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the process moving on a full compact between the Government of New Mexico and its American Indian bands. A decade had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Native casino Bingo.

The nonprofit Bingo business has gotten bigger since 1999. That year, New Mexico non-profit game operators brought in just $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded one million dollars in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo earnings have increased steadily since then. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the greatest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the owners.

Bingo is clearly favored in New Mexico. All sorts of providers look for a piece of the action. Hopefully, the politicians are done batting around gaming as a key matter like they did back in the 90’s. That is without doubt wishful thinking.