Casino Learn About Casino from the Experts

Read more about the
Las Vegas 2024 Super
Bowl Streaker!

New Mexico has a stormy gaming background. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the American Indian casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that would not be the situation.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a working group in Nineteen Ninety to create a contract with New Mexico Indian bands. When the panel came to an agreement with two important local bands a year later, the Governor refused to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.

When a new governor took office in 1995, it seemed that Amerindian gambling in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the compact with the Native tribes, anti-gambling groups were able to tie the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing a deal, therefore denying the government of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.

It required the CNA, passed by the New Mexico government, to get the ball rolling on a full compact amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Indian bands. 10 years had been lost for gaming in New Mexico, including Indian casino Bingo.

The nonprofit Bingo business has increased since 1999. That year, New Mexico non-profit game owners brought in only $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Non-profit Bingo earnings have grown steadily since that time. 2005 witnessed the greatest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the operators.

Bingo is categorically favored in New Mexico. All sorts of operators try for a bit of the pie. Hopefully, the politicians are through batting around gaming as an important matter like they did back in the 1990's. That is most likely wishful thinking.