New Mexico has a rocky gambling past. When the IGRA was passed by Congress in 1989, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the Native casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the case.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a task force in 1990 to negotiate a contract with New Mexico Indian tribes. When the panel arrived at an accord with two big local bands a year later, the Governor refused to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until 1994.

When a new governor took over in Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that Native wagering in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the contract with the Amerindian bands, anti-gambling groups were able to tie the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing the deal, thus costing the government of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.

It took the Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico government, to get the ball rolling on a full accord amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Native bands. A decade had been burned for gaming in New Mexico, including Amerindian casino Bingo.

The nonprofit Bingo business has grown from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico non-profit game owners brought in just $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo earnings have increased constantly since that time. 2005 saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the operators.

Bingo is clearly popular in New Mexico. All sorts of owners try for a piece of the pie. Hopefully, the politicos are done batting over gaming as an important issue like they did in the 1990’s. That is probably wishful thinking.