New Mexico has a stormy gambling history. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to cash in on the American Indian casino craze. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a panel in 1990 to draft a compact with New Mexico Indian bands. When the panel came to an accord with two important local tribes 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 appeared that Native gaming in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the contract with the American Indian bands, anti-gaming groups were able to hold the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing the deal, therefore denying the government of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It took the CNA, signed by the New Mexico government, to get the process moving on a full contract amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Amerindian tribes. 10 years had been lost for gaming in New Mexico, including Indian casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo business has grown from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game operators brought in only $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Not for profit Bingo earnings have grown constantly since that time. 2005 saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the providers.
Bingo is clearly beloved in New Mexico. All sorts of providers try for a bit of the action. With hope, the politicians are through batting around gaming as a key issue like they did in the 1990’s. That is probably wishful thinking.
This entry was posted on January 8, 2026, 2:25 am and is filed under Casino. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.