Bingo Tricks

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New Mexico has a bitter gambling past. When the IGRA was signed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the Native casino craze. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the case.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a panel in 1990 to draft a compact with New Mexico American Indian tribes. When the task force came to an agreement with two big local bands a year later, the Governor refused to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.

When a new governor took over in 1995, it seemed that Indian gaming in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the accord with the American Indian tribes, anti-wagering forces were able to tie the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the deal, thus denying the state of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.

It required the CNA, signed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the process moving on a full compact amongst the State of New Mexico and its Indian bands. Ten years had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, including Indian casino Bingo.

The non-profit Bingo industry has grown since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico non-profit game providers acquired only $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo earnings have grown constantly since that time. Two Thousand and Five saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the operators.

Bingo is apparently beloved in New Mexico. All kinds of owners try for a piece of the action. Hopefully, the politicians are through batting around gaming as an important factor like they did in the 1990’s. That is without doubt hopeful thinking.