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New Mexico has a stormy gaming background. When the IGRA was passed by the House in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the Indian casino craze. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the case.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a task force in Nineteen Ninety to create a contract with New Mexico American Indian bands. When the panel came to an accord with 2 prominent local bands a year later, Governor King declined to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until 1994.

When a new governor took over in 1995, it appeared that Native betting in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the accord with the Amerindian bands, anti-wagering groups were able to hold the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson 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 Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico house, to get the ball rolling on a full accord between the State of New Mexico and its Amerindian bands. A decade had been lost for gaming in New Mexico, which includes Indian casino Bingo.

The non-profit Bingo industry has gotten bigger from 1999. In that year, New Mexico non-profit game owners acquired just $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Not for profit Bingo earnings have grown steadily since then. 2005 witnessed the biggest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the owners.

Bingo is certainly popular in New Mexico. All kinds of owners try for a piece of the pie. Hopefully, the politicos are done batting over gaming as a key matter like they did back in the 90’s. That is without doubt wishful thinking.