New Mexico has a stormy gambling history. When the IGRA was signed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the American Indian casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that would not be the situation.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a panel in Nineteen Ninety to create an accord with New Mexico American Indian bands. When the working group came to an accord with two prominent local bands a year later, Governor King refused to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until 1994.

When a new governor took office in Nineteen Ninety Five, it appeared that Amerindian gambling in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the accord with the American Indian bands, anti-gaming forces were able to tie the contract up in courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing the compact, thereby costing the state of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.

It required the Compact Negotiation Act, passed by the New Mexico government, to get the ball rolling on a full compact between the Government of New Mexico and its Indian tribes. 10 years had been squandered for gambling in New Mexico, including Native casino Bingo.

The nonprofit Bingo business has gotten bigger from 1999. 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 one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Non-profit Bingo earnings have grown steadily since then. Two Thousand and Five saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the owners.

Bingo is certainly popular in New Mexico. All sorts of providers look for a bit of the action. Hopefully, the politicians are through batting around gambling as an important matter like they did in the 1990’s. That is without doubt wishful thinking.