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New Mexico has a rocky gambling past. 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 cash in on the Indian casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that would not be the case.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a task force in Nineteen Ninety to create a compact with New Mexico American Indian tribes. When the task force arrived at an agreement with 2 big local bands a year later, the Governor refused to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until 1994.

When a new governor took over in 1995, it seemed that Native wagering in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the contract with the Amerindian tribes, anti-wagering forces were able to tie the accord up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing the compact, thereby costing the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.

It took the Compact Negotiation Act, passed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the process moving on a full accord amongst the State of New Mexico and its Indian bands. 10 years had been squandered for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Amerindian casino Bingo.

The not for profit Bingo industry has increased from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico non-profit game providers brought in only $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in 2001. Not for profit Bingo earnings have increased steadily since then. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the largest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the owners.

Bingo is apparently popular in New Mexico. All sorts of owners look for a piece of the pie. Hopefully, the politicians are done batting over gaming as an important matter like they did back in the 1990’s. That’s without doubt wishful thinking.