• Home

Read more about the
Las Vegas 2024 Super
Bowl Streaker!

New Mexico has a complex gaming 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 Amerindian casino bandwagon. Politics assured that would not be the case.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a working group in Nineteen Ninety to create a contract with New Mexico Native bands. When the working group arrived at an accord with 2 big local tribes a year later, Governor King declined to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.

When a new governor took over in 1995, it seemed that Native gambling 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 tie the accord up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing the compact, thus denying the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.

It took the CNA, passed by the New Mexico government, to get the ball rolling on a full accord amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Indian bands. 10 years had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Amerindian casino Bingo.

The not for profit Bingo business has grown since 1999. In that year, New Mexico charity game providers acquired only $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo revenues have grown constantly since then. 2005 saw the greatest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.

Bingo is certainly popular in New Mexico. All types of operators look for a piece of the action. With hope, the politicians are done batting over gambling as a hot button factor like they did back in the 90’s. That’s most likely hopeful thinking.

Log in