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

The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a task force in 1990 to draft a contract with New Mexico Amerindian bands. When the task force came to an agreement with 2 prominent local tribes a year later, the Governor declined to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until 1994.

When a new governor took office in Nineteen Ninety Five, it appeared that Native gambling in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the accord with the Native bands, anti-wagering groups were able to tie the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing a deal, thereby 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, passed by the New Mexico government, to get the process moving on a full compact between the Government of New Mexico and its American Indian tribes. A decade had been lost for gaming in New Mexico, including Native casino Bingo.

The nonprofit Bingo business has grown since 1999. That year, New Mexico non-profit game operators brought in just $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have increased steadily since that time. 2005 saw the greatest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the owners.

Bingo is clearly popular in New Mexico. All sorts of owners look for a bit of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are done batting over gaming as a key issue like they did in the 1990’s. That is probably wishful thinking.