New Mexico has a rocky gambling history. When the IGRA was passed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the American Indian casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the situation.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a task force in Nineteen Ninety to draft a compact with New Mexico American Indian tribes. When the panel came to an accord with 2 prominent local bands a year later, the Governor refused to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until 1994.

When a new governor took over in 1995, it seemed that American Indian gaming in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the accord with the American Indian tribes, anti-gaming forces were able to tie the accord up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the compact, 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 legislature, to get the ball rolling on a full contract between the State of New Mexico and its Indian bands. A decade had been squandered for gambling in New Mexico, including American Indian casino Bingo.

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

Bingo is clearly popular in New Mexico. All sorts of owners try for a piece of the pie. Hopefully, the politicos are through batting around gambling as a hot button issue like they did back in the 90’s. That is probably wishful thinking.