New Mexico has a bitter gambling history. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by Congress in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the American Indian casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that would not be the situation.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a task force in Nineteen Ninety to create a contract with New Mexico American Indian bands. When the panel came to an agreement with two prominent local bands a year later, Governor King refused to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.

When a new governor took office in Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that Indian gambling in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the accord with the Amerindian bands, anti-gaming groups were able to hold the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing the accord, thus costing the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.

It required the CNA, signed by the New Mexico government, to get the process moving on a full contract amongst the State of New Mexico and its Amerindian bands. Ten years had been lost for gambling in New Mexico, including Native casino Bingo.

The nonprofit Bingo industry has grown from 1999. In that year, New Mexico charity game operators brought in just $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded one million dollars in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have increased constantly since that time. 2005 saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.

Bingo is categorically popular in New Mexico. All sorts of operators look for a piece of the pie. Hopefully, the politicos are through batting around gaming as a key matter like they did in the 1990’s. That is most likely hopeful thinking.