Casino Cheats My Casino Cheats Blog

Read more about the
Las Vegas 2024 Super
Bowl Streaker!

New Mexico has a bitter gaming past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the Native casino bandwagon. Politics assured that would not be the situation.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a working group in 1990 to discuss a compact with New Mexico Amerindian tribes. When the panel came to an agreement with 2 big local bands a year later, Governor King declined to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until 1994.

When a new governor took office in 1995, it seemed that Amerindian betting in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the accord with the Native tribes, anti-gaming groups were able to tie the accord up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing the accord, therefore costing the state 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 legislature, to get the ball rolling on a full accord between the State of New Mexico and its Indian tribes. Ten years had been squandered for gambling in New Mexico, including American Indian casino Bingo.

The non-profit Bingo industry has grown since 1999. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game owners brought in only $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo earnings have grown steadily since then. 2005 witnessed the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.

Bingo is apparently favored in New Mexico. All sorts of operators try for a slice of the pie. With hope, the politicians are done batting around gaming as a key factor like they did in the 1990's. That's most likely hopeful thinking.