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

The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a working group in 1990 to draft an accord with New Mexico American Indian tribes. When the task force came to an accord with two important local tribes a year later, Governor King declined to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.

When a new governor took over in Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that Native wagering in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the accord with the American Indian tribes, anti-gaming forces were able to tie the contract up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing the deal, therefore costing 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 government, to get the ball rolling on a full contract between the Government of New Mexico and its Native tribes. A decade had been squandered for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Native casino Bingo.

The non-profit Bingo industry has increased since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico charity game owners brought in only $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Non-profit Bingo earnings have grown constantly since then. 2005 saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.

Bingo is categorically popular in New Mexico. All sorts of providers try for a piece of the pie. With hope, the politicos are done batting around gambling as a key issue like they did in the 1990’s. That is probably hopeful thinking.

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