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New Mexico has a stormy gambling background. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it seemed like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the Native casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that would not be the case.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a task force in 1990 to discuss an accord with New Mexico Indian bands. When the task force arrived at an accord with two big local tribes a year later, the Governor declined to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until 1994.

When a new governor took over in 1995, it appeared that American Indian wagering in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the accord with the Native tribes, anti-gaming forces were able to tie the accord up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing the accord, therefore denying the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.

It took the Compact Negotiation Act, passed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the ball rolling on a full accord amongst the State of New Mexico and its American Indian tribes. Ten years had been lost for gaming in New Mexico, including Native casino Bingo.

The nonprofit Bingo industry has increased from 1999. In that year, New Mexico charity game providers acquired just $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have increased steadily since that time. Two Thousand and Five saw the greatest year, with $1,233,289 earned 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 around gaming as a key factor like they did back in the 90’s. That’s without doubt wishful thinking.