New Mexico has a rocky gaming history. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by Congress in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the Indian casino craze. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the case.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a working group in 1990 to discuss a compact with New Mexico Amerindian bands. When the task force came to an accord with 2 prominent 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 office in 1995, it seemed that American Indian gambling in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the contract with the Indian tribes, anti-gambling forces were able to hold the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing the 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 Compact Negotiation Act, passed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the ball rolling on a full compact between the Government of New Mexico and its Amerindian tribes. A decade had been squandered for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Native casino Bingo.

The non-profit Bingo industry has grown from 1999. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game operators acquired just $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed one million dollars in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have grown steadily since then. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the biggest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the providers.

Bingo is clearly beloved in New Mexico. All kinds of owners look for a piece of the pie. Hopefully, the politicos are through batting over gaming as an important factor like they did back in the 1990’s. That is probably hopeful thinking.