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New Mexico has a rocky gaming background. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by Congress in 1989, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the Native casino craze. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the situation.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a task force in Nineteen Ninety to negotiate an accord with New Mexico American Indian bands. When the working group came to an accord with 2 big local tribes a year later, the Governor declined to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.

When a new governor took office in 1995, it appeared that Indian gaming in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the accord with the Native tribes, anti-gambling groups 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 accord, therefore costing the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.

It took the CNA, signed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the ball rolling on a full compact amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Native bands. 10 years had been squandered for gaming in New Mexico, including Amerindian casino Bingo.

The non-profit Bingo industry has increased from 1999. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game operators brought in only $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo earnings have grown steadily since that time. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the largest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the operators.

Bingo is apparently popular in New Mexico. All sorts of operators look for a slice of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are through batting over gaming as an important issue like they did back in the 1990’s. That’s probably wishful thinking.