New Mexico has a stormy gaming past. 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 Indian casino craze. Politics assured that would not be the case.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a working group in 1990 to create a compact with New Mexico American Indian tribes. When the task force arrived at an agreement with two prominent local tribes a year later, Governor King refused to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until 1994.

When a new governor took office in Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that Native gaming in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the compact with the Indian tribes, anti-gaming groups were able to hold the deal up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing the accord, thus denying the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.

It required the Compact Negotiation Act, passed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the ball rolling on a full accord between the State of New Mexico and its Indian bands. Ten years had been burned for gaming in New Mexico, including Amerindian casino Bingo.

The not for profit Bingo business has gotten bigger from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico charity game operators brought in only $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Non-profit Bingo earnings have grown steadily since that time. 2005 saw the greatest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the providers.

Bingo is clearly favored in New Mexico. All kinds of operators look for a slice of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are through batting over gambling as an important factor like they did back in the 90’s. That is without doubt hopeful thinking.