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New Mexico has a complex gaming past. When the IGRA was signed by Congress in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the Amerindian casino bandwagon. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the situation.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a panel in Nineteen Ninety to draft a contract with New Mexico Indian bands. When the working group arrived at an accord with 2 important local bands a year later, the Governor refused to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until 1994.

When a new governor took over in Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that Native wagering in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the compact with the Native tribes, anti-gaming forces were able to tie the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing the compact, thereby costing the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.

It required the Compact Negotiation Act, passed 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 burned for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Amerindian casino Bingo.

The nonprofit Bingo industry has grown from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game operators acquired only $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo revenues have increased constantly since that time. 2005 saw the greatest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the providers.

Bingo is categorically beloved in New Mexico. All kinds of owners try for a piece of the pie. With hope, the politicians are through batting around gambling as a hot button issue like they did back in the 1990’s. That is probably wishful thinking.