Bingo in New Mexico
Tuesday, 15. September 2026
New Mexico has a complex gambling past. When the IGRA was signed by Congress in 1989, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to cash in on the American Indian casino craze. Politics guaranteed that would not be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a working group in Nineteen Ninety to discuss a contract with New Mexico Amerindian bands. When the panel arrived at an accord with 2 prominent local tribes a year later, Governor King 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 Native gaming in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the contract with the Amerindian bands, anti-gambling forces were able to tie the deal up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing the compact, therefore denying the state of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.
It required the CNA, passed by the New Mexico house, to get the process moving on a full accord amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Indian tribes. A decade had been burned for gaming in New Mexico, which includes Native casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo business has grown since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico non-profit game operators brought in just $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have grown steadily since that time. 2005 witnessed the largest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the operators.
Bingo is clearly beloved in New Mexico. All types of owners look for a bit of the action. Hopefully, the politicians are done batting around gaming as an important issue like they did back in the 1990’s. That’s probably wishful thinking.
Posted in Casino by Chace