Bingo Strategy

Read more about the
Las Vegas 2024 Super
Bowl Streaker!

New Mexico has a stormy gambling history. When the IGRA was signed by Congress in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the American Indian casino craze. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the situation.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a task force in 1990 to negotiate a contract with New Mexico Amerindian tribes. When the task force arrived at an accord with two big local tribes a year later, Governor King declined to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.

When a new governor took office in Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that Amerindian gambling in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the compact with the Amerindian bands, anti-gaming groups were able to hold the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing a deal, therefore denying the government of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.

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

The nonprofit Bingo industry has gotten bigger since 1999. That year, New Mexico not for profit game operators acquired only $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and passed a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Non-profit Bingo earnings have grown steadily since then. Two Thousand and Five saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the owners.

Bingo is apparently popular in New Mexico. All kinds of providers look for a piece of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are through batting around gaming as a key issue like they did back in the 1990’s. That is probably hopeful thinking.