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New Mexico has a complex gaming history. When the IGRA was signed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to cash in on the Native casino craze. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the case.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a panel in 1990 to draft a compact with New Mexico Amerindian bands. When the task force arrived at an agreement with two important local bands a year later, the Governor declined to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.

When a new governor took office in Nineteen Ninety Five, it appeared that Amerindian gambling in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the contract with the American Indian tribes, anti-gaming forces were able to hold the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing the compact, thereby costing the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.

It required the CNA, passed by the New Mexico government, to get the ball rolling on a full accord amongst the State of New Mexico and its Native tribes. A decade had been squandered for gaming in New Mexico, including Native casino Bingo.

The nonprofit Bingo business has grown since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico charity game providers acquired only $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have grown steadily since that time. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the largest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.

Bingo is clearly popular in New Mexico. All types of operators try for a piece of the action. With hope, the politicos are through batting around gambling as a key matter like they did in the 1990’s. That is probably wishful thinking.