29
November
Written by Keegan.
Posted in: Casino
New Mexico has a bitter gambling past. When the IGRA was passed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to cash in on the Amerindian casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that would not be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a task force in 1990 to draft a contract with New Mexico American Indian bands. When the panel came to an accord with 2 prominent local bands a year later, Governor King refused to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took over in Nineteen Ninety Five, it appeared that Amerindian wagering in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the compact with the Indian tribes, anti-wagering forces were able to tie the contract up in courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing a deal, thereby denying the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.
It required the CNA, signed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the process moving on a full contract between the State of New Mexico and its Indian tribes. Ten years had been burned for gaming in New Mexico, including Indian casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo business has increased since 1999. In that year, New Mexico charity game operators brought in 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 increased steadily since then. Two Thousand and Five saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.
Bingo is apparently popular in New Mexico. All sorts of operators try for a piece of the pie. Hopefully, the politicos are done batting around gaming as an important issue like they did back in the 90’s. That is probably wishful thinking.
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