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New Mexico has a complex gaming history. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the Indian casino bandwagon. Politics assured that would not be the case.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a panel in 1990 to negotiate an accord with New Mexico Indian tribes. When the working group came to an agreement with 2 prominent local bands a year later, Governor King refused to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.

When a new governor took over in 1995, it seemed that Indian wagering in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the contract with the Native bands, anti-gambling groups were able to hold the deal up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that Governor Johnson had overstepped 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 took the Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the process moving on a full contract between the Government of New Mexico and its Native tribes. A decade had been lost for gambling in New Mexico, including Native casino Bingo.

The nonprofit Bingo business has increased since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico charity game providers brought in only $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Non-profit Bingo revenues have grown steadily since then. 2005 saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the owners.

Bingo is clearly popular in New Mexico. All sorts of owners try for a bit of the pie. With hope, the politicians are done batting around gambling as an important factor like they did back in the 90’s. That’s most likely wishful thinking.

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