Casino Tips

Read more about the
Las Vegas 2024 Super
Bowl Streaker!

New Mexico has a stormy gaming background. When the IGRA was passed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the Native casino craze. Politics guaranteed that would not be the situation.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a panel in 1990 to draft a compact with New Mexico Native bands. When the panel arrived at an agreement with two big local tribes a year later, the Governor declined to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.

When a new governor took over in 1995, it appeared that Amerindian gaming in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the accord with the Amerindian bands, anti-gambling 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 compact, thus costing the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.

It required the CNA, signed by the New Mexico house, to get the ball rolling on a full compact between the Government of New Mexico and its Indian bands. Ten years had been lost for gaming in New Mexico, including Native casino Bingo.

The non-profit Bingo industry has gotten bigger from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico charity game owners acquired only $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded one million dollars in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo revenues have grown constantly since that time. 2005 saw the greatest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the operators.

Bingo is clearly popular in New Mexico. All types of providers try for a bit of the pie. With hope, the politicians are done batting around gambling as a key issue like they did back in the 1990’s. That’s most likely wishful thinking.