New Mexico has a stormy gaming history. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the Indian casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the case.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a task force in 1990 to negotiate an accord with New Mexico Amerindian tribes. When the panel came to an accord with 2 big local bands a year later, the Governor declined to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until 1994.

When a new governor took office in 1995, it appeared that Native gambling in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the contract with the Indian bands, anti-gaming forces were able to tie the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing a deal, thus denying the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.

It took the CNA, passed by the New Mexico government, to get the ball rolling on a full accord amongst the State of New Mexico and its American Indian tribes. Ten years had been lost for gaming in New Mexico, which includes American Indian casino Bingo.

The not for profit Bingo industry has grown since 1999. In that year, New Mexico non-profit game operators brought in only $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have grown constantly since then. Two Thousand and Five saw the greatest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the providers.

Bingo is clearly beloved in New Mexico. All kinds of operators look for a slice of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are through batting around gaming as an important issue like they did back in the 90’s. That is without doubt hopeful thinking.