New Mexico has a bitter gaming past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by the House in 1989, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to cash in on the Native casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that would not be the case.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a task force in Nineteen Ninety to discuss an accord with New Mexico Native tribes. When the working group came to an agreement with two prominent local tribes a year later, Governor King declined to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until 1994.

When a new governor took over in 1995, it seemed that Amerindian betting in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the contract with the Amerindian tribes, anti-wagering groups were able to hold the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing the compact, thus costing the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.

It required the CNA, passed by the New Mexico government, to get the ball rolling on a full contract between the State of New Mexico and its American Indian bands. A decade had been lost for gaming in New Mexico, which includes Indian casino Bingo.

The non-profit Bingo industry has grown since 1999. That year, New Mexico charity game owners acquired only $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo revenues have increased constantly since that time. 2005 saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the owners.

Bingo is certainly beloved in New Mexico. All sorts of owners look for a bit of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are through batting over gaming as a key factor like they did in the 90’s. That’s without doubt wishful thinking.