New Mexico Bingo
by Rory on Wednesday, October 22nd, 2025
New Mexico has a stormy gambling background. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the Amerindian casino bandwagon. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a panel in 1990 to draft a contract with New Mexico Native bands. When the task force arrived at an agreement with 2 prominent local bands a year later, Governor King declined to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took office in Nineteen Ninety Five, it appeared that American Indian wagering in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the accord with the American Indian tribes, anti-wagering groups were able to hold the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing a deal, thus costing the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It took the CNA, signed by the New Mexico house, to get the process moving on a full contract between the Government of New Mexico and its Indian tribes. 10 years had been squandered for gaming in New Mexico, which includes Amerindian casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo business has increased from 1999. That year, New Mexico charity game operators acquired only $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have increased constantly since that time. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the providers.
Bingo is clearly popular in New Mexico. All kinds of providers look for a slice of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are through batting around gaming as a hot button matter like they did in the 90’s. That is without doubt wishful thinking.
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