Bingo Secrets

Read more about the
Las Vegas 2024 Super
Bowl Streaker!

New Mexico has a stormy gaming history. When the IGRA was passed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the American Indian casino craze. Politics guaranteed that would not be the case.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a task force in 1990 to negotiate an accord with New Mexico Native tribes. When the task force arrived at an agreement with two important 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 over in 1995, it seemed that Indian gaming in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the compact with the Native bands, anti-gaming forces were able to tie the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing the accord, therefore costing the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.

It took the Compact Negotiation Act, passed by the New Mexico house, to get the process moving on a full compact between the State of New Mexico and its American Indian tribes. A decade had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, including Indian casino Bingo.

The not for profit Bingo business has increased from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game owners acquired just $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Non-profit Bingo revenues have grown steadily since that time. 2005 saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the providers.

Bingo is apparently beloved in New Mexico. All types of providers look for a bit of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are done batting over gaming as a key issue like they did in the 1990’s. That’s without doubt hopeful thinking.