New Mexico has a bitter gambling past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to cash in on the Native casino craze. Politics guaranteed that would not be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a working group in Nineteen Ninety to discuss an accord with New Mexico Amerindian tribes. When the task force arrived at an agreement with 2 big local bands a year later, the Governor declined to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took over in 1995, it seemed that Native betting in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the compact with the Amerindian tribes, anti-gaming forces were able to hold the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing a deal, thereby costing the state 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 process moving on a full compact between the Government of New Mexico and its Amerindian tribes. A decade had been burned for gaming in New Mexico, which includes Indian casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo business has gotten bigger from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico charity game providers acquired just $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in 2001. Not for profit Bingo earnings have increased steadily since then. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the greatest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the operators.
Bingo is certainly favored in New Mexico. All kinds of owners try for a bit of the action. Hopefully, the politicians are done batting around gaming as an important matter like they did back in the 1990’s. That is without doubt hopeful thinking.
May 22nd, 2018
Callie
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