New Mexico has a stormy gambling past. When the IGRA was signed by Congress in 1989, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the Indian casino craze. Politics assured that would not be the situation.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a working group in 1990 to draft a contract with New Mexico American Indian bands. When the panel came to an accord with two prominent local tribes a year later, Governor King declined to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.

When a new governor took over in 1995, it seemed that Native betting in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the contract with the Amerindian bands, anti-gambling forces were able to hold the accord up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing the accord, therefore costing the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.

It took the CNA, passed by the New Mexico government, to get the process moving on a full compact amongst the State of New Mexico and its Indian bands. A decade had been lost for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Native casino Bingo.

The nonprofit Bingo industry has increased from 1999. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game owners acquired just $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have increased steadily since that time. 2005 saw the greatest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the owners.

Bingo is certainly popular in New Mexico. All types of providers try for a bit of the action. With hope, the politicos are through batting over gambling as a key matter like they did in the 1990’s. That’s most likely hopeful thinking.