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New Mexico has a stormy gambling history. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by the House in 1989, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the American Indian casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the situation.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a working group in 1990 to draft an accord with New Mexico Indian bands. When the working group arrived at an accord with 2 prominent local bands a year later, the Governor declined to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.

When a new governor took over in 1995, it seemed that Native wagering in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the contract with the Indian tribes, anti-wagering groups were able to tie the deal up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing the compact, thereby denying the government 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 government, to get the process moving on a full compact amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Indian tribes. A decade had been burned for gaming in New Mexico, which includes American Indian casino Bingo.

The not for profit Bingo business has grown since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico charity game operators acquired only $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo earnings have increased constantly since then. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the greatest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the owners.

Bingo is apparently popular in New Mexico. All kinds of providers try for a slice of the pie. Hopefully, the politicians are through batting around gaming as an important issue like they did back in the 1990’s. That’s without doubt wishful thinking.