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New Mexico has a complex gambling background. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by Congress in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the Indian casino craze. Politics guaranteed that would not be the case.

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

When a new governor took over in 1995, it appeared that Native wagering in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the accord with the Amerindian bands, anti-gaming groups were able to tie the contract up in courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had overstepped 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 took the Compact Negotiation Act, passed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the process moving on a full compact amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Amerindian tribes. 10 years had been lost for gaming in New Mexico, including Amerindian casino Bingo.

The non-profit Bingo business has grown since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico charity game owners brought in just $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and passed a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo revenues have increased constantly since that time. 2005 witnessed the greatest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.

Bingo is clearly popular in New Mexico. All types of providers look for a piece of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are through batting around gaming as a hot button factor like they did back in the 90’s. That’s probably wishful thinking.