New Mexico Bingo

Read more about the
Las Vegas 2024 Super
Bowl Streaker!

New Mexico has a rocky gambling past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it seemed like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the Amerindian casino craze. Politics guaranteed that would not be the case.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a panel in Nineteen Ninety to discuss a contract with New Mexico Amerindian bands. When the panel came to an agreement with 2 prominent local bands a year later, Governor King refused to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.

When a new governor took over in Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that Indian wagering in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the compact with the Indian tribes, anti-wagering groups were able to hold the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the compact, thereby denying the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.

It required the Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico house, to get the ball rolling on a full contract between the Government of New Mexico and its Amerindian tribes. Ten years had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, including Indian casino Bingo.

The non-profit Bingo business has grown from 1999. That year, New Mexico non-profit game operators brought in just $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo revenues have grown constantly since that time. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the greatest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the operators.

Bingo is categorically popular in New Mexico. All kinds of owners try for a piece of the pie. With hope, the politicians are done batting around gambling as a hot button matter like they did back in the 1990’s. That’s most likely wishful thinking.