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New Mexico has a rocky gaming history. When the IGRA was signed by the House in 1989, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the Indian casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that would not be the case.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a task force in Nineteen Ninety to negotiate a compact with New Mexico American Indian tribes. When the task force came to an accord with two important local bands a year later, Governor King refused to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until 1994.

When a new governor took over in 1995, it appeared that Indian betting in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the contract with the American Indian bands, anti-gaming forces were able to tie the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing the compact, therefore costing the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.

It required the Compact Negotiation Act, passed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the process moving on a full compact between the Government of New Mexico and its Native bands. Ten years had been squandered for gaming in New Mexico, which includes Native casino Bingo.

The nonprofit Bingo industry has gotten bigger from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico not for profit game owners brought in just $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo earnings have increased constantly since that time. Two Thousand and Five saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the owners.

Bingo is clearly popular in New Mexico. All sorts of operators try for a slice of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are through batting over gambling as a hot button matter like they did back in the 90’s. That is probably hopeful thinking.