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New Mexico has a rocky gaming history. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by Congress in 1989, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the Amerindian casino bandwagon. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the case.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a panel in 1990 to discuss a compact with New Mexico Native tribes. When the panel arrived at an accord with 2 important 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 over in Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that Indian gambling in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the compact 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 costing the state of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.

It took the Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the process moving on a full contract between the Government of New Mexico and its Indian bands. A decade had been squandered for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Indian casino Bingo.

The non-profit Bingo business has gotten bigger since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game owners brought in just $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed a million dollars in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo earnings have grown steadily since then. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the largest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the operators.

Bingo is apparently favored in New Mexico. All kinds of operators look for a slice of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are done batting over gaming as a hot button matter like they did back in the 1990’s. That is most likely hopeful thinking.