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New Mexico has a stormy gaming past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the Native casino bandwagon. Politics assured that would not be the case.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a working group in 1990 to negotiate a contract with New Mexico Indian bands. When the working group came to an accord with two big local tribes a year later, Governor King refused to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until 1994.

When a new governor took over in Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that Amerindian betting in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the contract with the American Indian bands, anti-gaming forces were able to tie the accord up in courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing the deal, thus costing 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 ball rolling on a full accord amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Indian tribes. A decade had been squandered for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Indian casino Bingo.

The nonprofit Bingo industry has increased 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 surpassed a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo revenues have increased steadily since that time. 2005 saw the greatest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.

Bingo is apparently favored in New Mexico. All kinds of owners look for a piece of the action. With hope, the politicians are through batting around gaming as a key matter like they did in the 90’s. That’s probably wishful thinking.