New Mexico has a rocky gambling past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by Congress in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the Amerindian casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that would not be the situation.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a working group in Nineteen Ninety to draft a compact with New Mexico Indian tribes. When the panel arrived at an accord with two important local tribes a year later, Governor King refused to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.

When a new governor took over in 1995, it appeared that American Indian gambling in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the contract with the American Indian tribes, anti-gaming forces were able to hold the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing a deal, therefore 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, signed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the ball rolling on a full accord amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Native bands. Ten years had been burned for gaming in New Mexico, which includes Native casino Bingo.

The nonprofit Bingo industry has grown from 1999. In that year, New Mexico non-profit game owners acquired only $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and passed a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Not for profit Bingo earnings have grown constantly since then. 2005 witnessed the greatest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the providers.

Bingo is clearly beloved in New Mexico. All types of operators look for a slice of the action. With hope, the politicians are done batting around gambling as an important factor like they did back in the 1990’s. That is probably hopeful thinking.