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New Mexico Bingo

September 2nd, 2015 Leave a comment Go to comments

New Mexico has a bitter gaming past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by the House in 1989, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the Indian casino craze. Politics assured that would not be the case.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a panel in 1990 to create a contract with New Mexico Amerindian bands. When the task force arrived at an accord with 2 big local bands a year later, Governor King declined to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.

When a new governor took office in 1995, it seemed that American Indian betting in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the accord with the American Indian tribes, anti-gambling forces were able to hold the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the accord, therefore denying the state of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.

It required the Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico government, to get the ball rolling on a full compact amongst the Government of New Mexico and its American Indian bands. 10 years had been burned for gaming in New Mexico, which includes American Indian casino Bingo.

The nonprofit Bingo industry has grown since 1999. In that year, New Mexico non-profit game operators acquired just $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and passed a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo earnings have increased constantly since that time. 2005 witnessed the biggest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the providers.

Bingo is certainly popular in New Mexico. All sorts of operators try for a slice of the pie. Hopefully, the politicos are done batting over gambling as a key factor like they did in the 90’s. That’s most likely wishful thinking.

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