New Mexico has a rocky gambling past. When the IGRA was passed by Congress in 1989, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the American Indian casino craze. Politics assured that would not be the situation.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a working group in Nineteen Ninety to discuss an accord with New Mexico Native tribes. When the panel came to an accord with 2 big local bands a year later, Governor King refused to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until 1994.

When a new governor took office in 1995, it seemed that American Indian betting in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the contract with the Native tribes, anti-gaming forces were able to tie the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing the deal, thus denying the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.

It required the CNA, signed by the New Mexico house, to get the ball rolling on a full contract between the Government of New Mexico and its Indian tribes. Ten years had been squandered for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Indian casino Bingo.

The nonprofit Bingo industry has grown from 1999. That year, New Mexico non-profit game operators acquired only $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo earnings have increased steadily since that time. 2005 saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.

Bingo is certainly beloved in New Mexico. All kinds of providers try for a slice of the pie. Hopefully, the politicians are through batting over gaming as a hot button issue like they did back in the 1990’s. That’s most likely hopeful thinking.