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New Mexico has a stormy gaming past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the Native casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the situation.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a working group in 1990 to create an accord with New Mexico Amerindian bands. When the task force came to an accord with two prominent local tribes a year later, Governor King declined to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.

When a new governor took office in Nineteen Ninety Five, it appeared that American Indian betting in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the accord with the Amerindian bands, anti-gaming forces were able to tie the deal up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing the accord, thus costing the state of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues 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 between the Government of New Mexico and its Amerindian bands. A decade had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Indian casino Bingo.

The nonprofit Bingo industry has increased from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico non-profit game owners brought in just $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and passed a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo earnings have increased steadily since then. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the largest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the providers.

Bingo is certainly popular in New Mexico. All types of owners look for a piece of the pie. With hope, the politicians are done batting over gambling as a hot button matter like they did back in the 90’s. That is probably hopeful thinking.