03
September
Written by Yaritza.
Posted in: Casino
New Mexico has a bitter gaming past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by the House in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the American Indian casino bandwagon. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a task force in 1990 to discuss a compact with New Mexico Amerindian tribes. When the task force came to an agreement with 2 important local tribes a year later, the Governor refused to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took office in 1995, it appeared that American Indian wagering in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the contract with the American Indian tribes, anti-wagering groups were able to tie the accord up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing the deal, thus costing 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 legislature, to get the process moving on a full contract amongst the State of New Mexico and its Indian bands. A decade had been burned for gaming in New Mexico, which includes Amerindian casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo business has grown from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico charity game operators acquired only $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in 2001. Not for profit Bingo earnings have grown constantly since then. Two Thousand and Five saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the owners.
Bingo is certainly favored in New Mexico. All sorts of owners look for a bit of the pie. With hope, the politicians are through batting around gambling as a hot button matter like they did back in the 90’s. That is probably hopeful thinking.
Stay in touch with the conversation, subscribe to the RSS feed for comments on this post.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
