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New Mexico has a rocky gaming background. When the IGRA was passed by the House in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico might be one of the states to cash in on the Indian casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the situation.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a working group in Nineteen Ninety to create a compact with New Mexico Native tribes. When the panel came to an accord with two prominent local tribes a year later, the Governor refused to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until 1994.

When a new governor took office in 1995, it appeared that Native gambling in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the compact with the Indian tribes, anti-gaming forces were able to hold the deal up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing the accord, thereby costing the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.

It took the Compact Negotiation Act, passed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the process moving on a full contract amongst the State of New Mexico and its American Indian tribes. Ten years had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, including Native casino Bingo.

The non-profit Bingo business has increased from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game providers brought in only $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have grown constantly since then. Two Thousand and Five saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the providers.

Bingo is certainly popular in New Mexico. All sorts of operators look for a bit of the action. With hope, the politicians are through batting over gambling as an important matter like they did back in the 90’s. That’s without doubt wishful thinking.