21
November
Written by Erin.
Posted in: Casino
[
English ]
New Mexico has a stormy gambling history. When the IGRA was passed by the House in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the Native casino bandwagon. Politics assured that would not be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a panel in Nineteen Ninety to create a compact with New Mexico Indian bands. When the working group came to an agreement with 2 important local tribes a year later, the Governor refused to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took office in 1995, it seemed that Native betting in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the contract with the Indian tribes, anti-gaming forces were able to tie the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing the accord, thus denying the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.
It required the CNA, signed by the New Mexico government, to get the process moving on a full compact between the Government of New Mexico and its Indian bands. A decade had been lost for gaming in New Mexico, including Native casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo business has increased since 1999. In that year, New Mexico non-profit game operators acquired just $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed a million dollars in 2001. Not for profit Bingo earnings have increased constantly since then. 2005 saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.
Bingo is certainly favored in New Mexico. All sorts of owners try for a bit of the pie. Hopefully, the politicians are through batting around gambling as a hot button matter like they did in the 90’s. That’s probably wishful thinking.
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