New Mexico has a rocky gambling background. When the IGRA was passed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the Indian casino craze. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the situation.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a working group in 1990 to discuss a contract with New Mexico Amerindian bands. When the panel arrived at an accord with two big local tribes a year later, Governor King declined to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until 1994.

When a new governor took over in Nineteen Ninety Five, it appeared that Native wagering in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the accord with the Native tribes, anti-wagering groups were able to hold the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing the accord, thus denying 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 house, to get the process moving on a full compact amongst the State of New Mexico and its Indian bands. A decade had been squandered for gaming in New Mexico, which includes Indian casino Bingo.

The non-profit Bingo business has grown since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico not for profit game providers brought in just $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo earnings have increased constantly since then. 2005 witnessed the greatest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the providers.

Bingo is certainly beloved in New Mexico. All types of owners look for a piece of the pie. Hopefully, the politicians are done batting around gambling as an important issue like they did back in the 90’s. That is without doubt wishful thinking.