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New Mexico has a rocky gaming history. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by the House in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico would 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 Indian tribes. When the working group came to an accord with 2 big local tribes a year later, the Governor declined to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.

When a new governor took over in 1995, it appeared that Amerindian betting in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the contract with the American Indian bands, anti-gaming groups were able to tie the deal up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing a deal, therefore denying the state of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.

It took the Compact Negotiation Act, passed by the New Mexico government, to get the process moving on a full compact between the State of New Mexico and its American Indian tribes. A decade had been squandered for gambling in New Mexico, including American Indian casino Bingo.

The non-profit Bingo industry has increased from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico non-profit game operators brought in just $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and passed a million dollars in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo revenues have increased constantly since then. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the greatest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.

Bingo is certainly popular in New Mexico. All kinds of owners look for a piece of the pie. With hope, the politicos are done batting around gambling as an important matter like they did back in the 90’s. That is without doubt hopeful thinking.