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New Mexico has a stormy gambling background. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by Congress in 1989, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the American Indian casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the case.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a panel in Nineteen Ninety to negotiate a compact with New Mexico American Indian tribes. When the task force came to an agreement with 2 big local tribes a year later, Governor King declined to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.

When a new governor took over in Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that Amerindian wagering in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the contract with the Indian tribes, anti-gaming forces were able to tie the accord up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the compact, thus denying 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 government, to get the ball rolling on a full contract between the State of New Mexico and its Indian bands. A decade had been burned for gaming in New Mexico, which includes Indian casino Bingo.

The non-profit Bingo industry has grown since 1999. That year, New Mexico charity game operators brought in only $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed one million dollars in 2001. Non-profit Bingo earnings have grown steadily since that time. Two Thousand and Five saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the owners.

Bingo is apparently beloved in New Mexico. All kinds of owners look for a bit of the pie. With hope, the politicians are through batting around gaming as an important matter like they did back in the 1990’s. That’s without doubt hopeful thinking.