[
English ]
New Mexico has a complex gambling background. When the IGRA was signed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the Native casino bandwagon. Politics assured that would not be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a panel in Nineteen Ninety to draft a compact with New Mexico Amerindian tribes. When the panel arrived at an agreement with 2 prominent local bands a year later, Governor King refused to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took office in 1995, it seemed that Amerindian gaming in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the contract with the Native bands, anti-gambling forces were able to hold the accord up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing a deal, therefore denying the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.
It took the CNA, signed by the New Mexico house, to get the process moving on a full accord between the State of New Mexico and its Amerindian tribes. 10 years had been burned for gaming in New Mexico, including Amerindian casino Bingo.
The not for profit Bingo industry has gotten bigger since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game operators brought in just $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in 2001. Non-profit Bingo earnings have increased steadily since that time. 2005 witnessed the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.
Bingo is clearly popular in New Mexico. All types of owners look for a slice of the pie. Hopefully, the politicos are done batting around gambling as a key matter like they did in the 1990’s. That is without doubt hopeful thinking.
Filed under: Casino -
Trackback
Uri
