New Mexico has a complex gambling history. When the IGRA was signed by Congress 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 case.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a panel in Nineteen Ninety to create an accord with New Mexico Indian tribes. When the working group came to an accord with two big local bands a year later, Governor King declined to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until 1994.

When a new governor took over in 1995, it seemed that Indian gambling in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the accord with the Amerindian bands, anti-gambling groups 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 deal, thereby denying the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.

It took the CNA, passed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the ball rolling on a full compact between the State of New Mexico and its American Indian bands. A decade had been lost for gambling in New Mexico, including Amerindian casino Bingo.

The nonprofit Bingo business has grown since 1999. That year, New Mexico charity game operators acquired just $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Non-profit Bingo earnings have increased steadily since that time. Two Thousand and Five saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the providers.

Bingo is clearly favored in New Mexico. All sorts of owners try for a slice of the action. Hopefully, the politicians are done batting over gaming as a hot button issue like they did in the 1990’s. That’s most likely hopeful thinking.