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New Mexico has a bitter gaming history. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the Native casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the case.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a working group in 1990 to create a contract with New Mexico Amerindian tribes. When the working group came to an accord with 2 important local tribes a year later, Governor King declined to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.

When a new governor took over in 1995, it appeared that Native gaming in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the accord with the Amerindian tribes, anti-gaming groups were able to tie the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing the accord, therefore denying 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, passed by the New Mexico house, to get the process moving on a full accord amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Amerindian bands. Ten years had been lost for gambling in New Mexico, including American Indian casino Bingo.

The nonprofit Bingo industry has grown since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico charity game owners acquired just $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo revenues have grown steadily since then. Two Thousand and Five saw the greatest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.

Bingo is categorically popular in New Mexico. All kinds of providers look for a bit of the action. With hope, the politicians are through batting around gambling as a hot button factor like they did in the 90’s. That’s probably wishful thinking.

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