New Mexico has a stormy gaming past. 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 Native casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that would not be the situation.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a panel in Nineteen Ninety to create an accord with New Mexico American Indian tribes. When the working group came to an agreement with 2 big local tribes a year later, the Governor declined to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until 1994.

When a new governor took over in 1995, it seemed that Amerindian gaming in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the compact with the Amerindian bands, anti-gaming groups were able to hold the contract up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing a deal, therefore costing the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.

It took the Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico government, to get the ball rolling on a full accord amongst the State of New Mexico and its Native tribes. Ten years had been burned for gaming in New Mexico, including American Indian casino Bingo.

The non-profit Bingo industry has gotten bigger since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico non-profit game providers acquired just $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo revenues have increased steadily since then. 2005 witnessed the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the owners.

Bingo is certainly favored in New Mexico. All types of owners try for a piece of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are done batting over gaming as an important factor like they did back in the 1990’s. That is probably wishful thinking.