New Mexico has a complex gaming background. 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 assured that wouldn’t be the case.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a working group in Nineteen Ninety to draft an accord with New Mexico Native bands. When the task force arrived at an accord with 2 important local bands a year later, the Governor declined to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.

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

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

The nonprofit Bingo business has grown since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico charity game providers acquired only $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo earnings have increased steadily since then. 2005 witnessed the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the owners.

Bingo is certainly beloved in New Mexico. All types of owners try for a bit of the action. Hopefully, the politicians are done batting over gaming as an important matter like they did back in the 90’s. That’s most likely wishful thinking.