New Mexico has a complex gaming history. When the IGRA was passed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to cash in on the Native casino craze. Politics assured that would not be the case.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a working group in 1990 to create a compact with New Mexico Native tribes. When the panel came to an accord with 2 big local bands a year later, Governor King refused to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.

When a new governor took over in 1995, it seemed that Indian gambling in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the compact with the Native tribes, anti-gaming groups were able to hold the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing the accord, therefore denying the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.

It required the Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico house, to get the ball rolling on a full contract amongst the State of New Mexico and its Indian tribes. A decade had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, including American Indian casino Bingo.

The not for profit Bingo business has gotten bigger since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico non-profit game operators brought in only $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and passed a million dollars in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have grown steadily since that time. Two Thousand and Five saw the greatest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the owners.

Bingo is categorically popular in New Mexico. All sorts of owners try for a piece of the pie. Hopefully, the politicos are done batting over gambling as a hot button matter like they did back in the 1990’s. That’s most likely wishful thinking.