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New Mexico has a bitter gambling past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by the House in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the Indian casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that would not be the situation.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a working group in 1990 to discuss a contract with New Mexico Amerindian bands. When the panel came to an agreement with two big local tribes a year later, Governor King refused to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.

When a new governor took over in 1995, it appeared that Native gaming in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the contract with the Indian tribes, anti-gambling forces were able to tie the deal up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing a deal, thus denying the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.

It required the CNA, passed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the process moving on a full accord between the State of New Mexico and its American Indian tribes. A decade had been lost for gaming in New Mexico, which includes Native casino Bingo.

The nonprofit Bingo business has gotten bigger from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico not for profit game providers acquired just $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo earnings have grown constantly since that time. 2005 saw the greatest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the owners.

Bingo is categorically beloved in New Mexico. All sorts of operators try for a piece of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are done batting over gambling as an important issue like they did in the 1990’s. That’s most likely wishful thinking.