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New Mexico has a stormy gaming background. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed 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 guaranteed that wouldn’t be the situation.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a panel in 1990 to negotiate an accord with New Mexico Amerindian bands. When the panel arrived at an agreement with two prominent local bands a year later, the Governor declined to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until 1994.

When a new governor took office in Nineteen Ninety Five, it appeared that Native betting in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the accord with the American Indian tribes, anti-gambling groups were able to tie the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing the deal, therefore denying the government of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues 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 State of New Mexico and its Indian tribes. A decade had been burned for gaming in New Mexico, which includes Native casino Bingo.

The nonprofit Bingo business has increased since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico not for profit game providers acquired only $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo revenues have increased constantly since that time. Two Thousand and Five saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the providers.

Bingo is certainly popular in New Mexico. All sorts of providers look for a bit of the action. With hope, the politicos are through batting over gaming as an important issue like they did in the 90’s. That’s probably wishful thinking.