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New Mexico has a rocky gambling past. When the IGRA was passed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the Amerindian casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that would not be the case.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a panel in 1990 to draft a contract with New Mexico American Indian tribes. When the task force arrived at an accord with two prominent local bands a year later, Governor King refused to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.

When a new governor took over in Nineteen Ninety Five, it appeared that Indian betting in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the contract with the American Indian bands, anti-gambling groups were able to tie the accord up in courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing the accord, thus denying the state of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.

It took the Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the ball rolling on a full contract between the Government of New Mexico and its Indian tribes. A decade had been squandered for gaming in New Mexico, which includes Amerindian casino Bingo.

The nonprofit Bingo business has grown since 1999. In that year, New Mexico non-profit game providers brought in only $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in 2001. Non-profit Bingo revenues have grown steadily since then. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the largest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the operators.

Bingo is certainly beloved in New Mexico. All sorts of operators try for a bit of the pie. Hopefully, the politicians are done batting over gaming as a key matter like they did in the 90’s. That is probably wishful thinking.