Bingo in New Mexico
New Mexico has a rocky gambling past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the Indian casino craze. Politics assured that would not be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a working group in 1990 to negotiate a contract with New Mexico Amerindian bands. When the panel came to an agreement with 2 big local bands a year later, Governor King refused to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took over in 1995, it appeared that Indian gambling in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the compact with the Indian tribes, anti-gambling groups were able to tie the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing the compact, therefore denying 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 accord amongst the Government of New Mexico and its American Indian tribes. A decade had been squandered for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Indian casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo business has gotten bigger from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico charity game owners acquired only $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed one million dollars in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo revenues have grown constantly since then. 2005 witnessed the greatest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the owners.
Bingo is certainly favored in New Mexico. All sorts of operators look for a bit of the action. With hope, the politicians are through batting around gaming as an important matter like they did back in the 1990’s. That is probably hopeful thinking.
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