New Mexico has a complex gambling background. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by Congress in 1989, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the American Indian casino craze. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the situation.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a panel in Nineteen Ninety to negotiate a compact with New Mexico Amerindian bands. When the panel arrived at an agreement with two important local bands a year later, the Governor refused to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.

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 signed the contract with the Indian bands, anti-gaming forces were able to hold the accord up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing the deal, thus denying the government of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.

It required the CNA, passed by the New Mexico government, to get the process moving on a full compact amongst the State of New Mexico and its Native tribes. A decade had been burned for gambling 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 operators brought in just $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo earnings have increased constantly since that time. 2005 saw the greatest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the providers.

Bingo is certainly popular in New Mexico. All kinds of owners try for a slice of the action. Hopefully, the politicians are done batting around gaming as a key matter like they did in the 1990’s. That is without doubt hopeful thinking.