New Mexico has a stormy gambling past. When the IGRA was signed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the Native casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the case.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a panel in Nineteen Ninety to create an accord with New Mexico Amerindian tribes. When the task force came to an agreement with 2 important local tribes a year later, Governor King declined to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until 1994.

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

It required the CNA, passed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the process moving on a full contract amongst the State of New Mexico and its Amerindian bands. Ten years had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Amerindian casino Bingo.

The not for profit Bingo industry has grown from 1999. That year, New Mexico not for profit game owners brought in only $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have increased steadily since then. 2005 saw the greatest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.

Bingo is apparently popular in New Mexico. All types of operators try for a slice of the pie. Hopefully, the politicians are done batting over gambling as a hot button issue like they did back in the 90’s. That’s without doubt hopeful thinking.