New Mexico has a stormy gaming past. When the IGRA was passed by the House in 1989, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the Native casino craze. Politics guaranteed that would not be the situation.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a working group in 1990 to draft a compact with New Mexico Native bands. When the working group arrived at an accord with 2 important local tribes a year later, Governor King refused to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until 1994.

When a new governor took over in Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that American Indian gaming in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the contract with the Indian tribes, anti-gambling forces were able to tie the accord up in courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the compact, thus denying the government of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.

It required the Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the ball rolling on a full accord amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Native bands. Ten years had been squandered for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Indian casino Bingo.

The not for profit Bingo industry has grown since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game providers acquired only $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed a million dollars in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo revenues have increased constantly since then. Two Thousand and Five saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the owners.

Bingo is clearly popular in New Mexico. All kinds of providers look for a slice of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are through batting around gaming as an important factor like they did back in the 1990’s. That is most likely hopeful thinking.