New Mexico has a bitter gaming background. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the American Indian casino bandwagon. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the case.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a task force in Nineteen Ninety to negotiate an accord with New Mexico American Indian bands. When the task force came to an agreement with 2 important local tribes a year later, the Governor 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 Indian wagering in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the accord with the Indian tribes, anti-wagering forces were able to tie the deal 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 many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.

It required the Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the process moving on a full compact amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Native tribes. 10 years had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Amerindian casino Bingo.

The nonprofit Bingo business has gotten bigger from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico not for profit game providers brought in only $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have increased steadily since that time. 2005 witnessed the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the owners.

Bingo is certainly beloved in New Mexico. All types of providers try for a bit of the pie. Hopefully, the politicians are done batting over gambling as an important factor like they did in the 90’s. That is without doubt hopeful thinking.