New Mexico Bingo
New Mexico has a complex gaming background. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the Indian casino craze. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a task force in Nineteen Ninety to discuss an accord with New Mexico Native bands. When the working group arrived at an agreement with 2 important local tribes a year later, the Governor refused to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took office in 1995, it seemed that Amerindian betting in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the contract with the Amerindian tribes, anti-gambling groups were able to hold the accord up in courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing the accord, therefore denying the state of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.
It required the Compact Negotiation Act, passed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the ball rolling on a full compact between the Government of New Mexico and its Native tribes. 10 years had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, including Native casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo business has gotten bigger since 1999. In that year, New Mexico non-profit game providers acquired just $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have increased steadily since that time. Two Thousand and Five saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the providers.
Bingo is clearly popular in New Mexico. All types of providers look for a piece of the pie. Hopefully, the politicos are through batting around gaming as a hot button factor like they did in the 1990’s. That is without doubt hopeful thinking.

