New Mexico has a stormy gaming background. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the Amerindian casino craze. Politics guaranteed that would not be the situation.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a task force in Nineteen Ninety to negotiate a compact with New Mexico Native bands. When the task force came to an agreement with 2 prominent local bands a year later, Governor King declined to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.

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

It took the Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico house, to get the process moving on a full accord between the State of New Mexico and its Native bands. 10 years had been lost for gambling in New Mexico, which includes American Indian casino Bingo.

The not for profit Bingo industry has gotten bigger from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico non-profit game owners 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 revenues have increased constantly since then. Two Thousand and Five saw the greatest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the providers.

Bingo is clearly beloved in New Mexico. All types of operators look for a piece of the pie. Hopefully, the politicos are through batting over gaming as a key issue like they did back in the 1990’s. That is most likely hopeful thinking.