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New Mexico has a complex gambling past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the Native casino craze. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the situation.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a task force in Nineteen Ninety to create a compact with New Mexico Indian tribes. When the task force came to an accord with two big local bands a year later, Governor King declined to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until 1994.

When a new governor took office in 1995, it appeared that Indian wagering 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 tie the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing the accord, therefore denying the government of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.

It took the Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the ball rolling on a full compact between the State of New Mexico and its Native tribes. A decade had been lost for gaming in New Mexico, which includes Indian casino Bingo.

The nonprofit Bingo business has grown since 1999. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game owners acquired just $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and passed a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Non-profit Bingo earnings have grown constantly since then. 2005 witnessed the biggest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the providers.

Bingo is clearly beloved in New Mexico. All sorts of owners try for a piece of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are through batting over gambling as a key matter like they did back in the 1990’s. That’s without doubt hopeful thinking.