New Mexico has a stormy gaming past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by Congress in 1989, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the Amerindian casino bandwagon. Politics assured that would not be the situation.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a task force in Nineteen Ninety to negotiate a contract with New Mexico Indian tribes. When the panel came to an agreement with two important local bands a year later, Governor King refused to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until 1994.

When a new governor took office in 1995, it seemed that Native wagering in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the accord with the American Indian tribes, anti-wagering forces were able to tie the accord up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the compact, therefore costing 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, signed by the New Mexico house, to get the ball rolling on a full accord between the Government of New Mexico and its Amerindian tribes. A decade had been squandered for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Indian casino Bingo.

The nonprofit Bingo business has gotten bigger from 1999. That year, New Mexico charity game owners brought in just $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo earnings have increased constantly since then. 2005 witnessed the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the providers.

Bingo is categorically favored in New Mexico. All kinds of operators look for a slice of the pie. With hope, the politicos are done batting around gaming as an important matter like they did back in the 1990’s. That is without doubt wishful thinking.