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New Mexico has a rocky gaming background. When the IGRA was passed by the House in 1989, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to cash in on the American Indian casino bandwagon. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the situation.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a task force in Nineteen Ninety to negotiate a compact with New Mexico Indian tribes. When the working group arrived at an agreement with 2 important local tribes a year later, the Governor refused to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until 1994.

When a new governor took over in 1995, it seemed that American Indian gambling in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the contract with the Native tribes, anti-gambling groups were able to hold the accord up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing the deal, thereby denying the state of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.

It required the Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico house, to get the ball rolling on a full accord between the Government of New Mexico and its American Indian tribes. Ten years had been burned for gaming in New Mexico, including Indian casino Bingo.

The non-profit Bingo business has increased since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game owners acquired only $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed a million dollars in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo earnings have grown constantly since then. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the largest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the operators.

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