25
June
Written by Yaritza.
Posted in: Casino
New Mexico has a rocky gaming history. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by Congress in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the Native casino craze. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a task force in 1990 to negotiate a contract with New Mexico Indian bands. When the working group came to an accord with 2 prominent local bands a year later, the Governor refused to sign the bargain. He would hold 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 Governor Gary Johnson signed the accord with the Amerindian tribes, anti-gaming forces were able to tie the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the deal, thus denying 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 legislature, to get the ball rolling on a full accord between the State of New Mexico and its Amerindian tribes. 10 years had been squandered for gaming in New Mexico, which includes American Indian casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo industry has increased from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico not for profit game providers acquired just $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed a million dollars in 2001. Not for profit Bingo earnings have grown steadily since then. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the greatest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the owners.
Bingo is clearly popular in New Mexico. All types of owners try for a bit of the pie. Hopefully, the politicos are done batting around gambling as a hot button issue like they did in the 1990’s. That is most likely hopeful thinking.
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