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New Mexico has a complex gaming past. 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 cash in on the Amerindian casino craze. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the case.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a task force in Nineteen Ninety to draft a compact with New Mexico Native tribes. When the panel arrived at an agreement with two prominent local bands a year later, Governor King declined to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.

When a new governor took office in 1995, it seemed that Indian gaming in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the contract with the Native tribes, anti-gaming groups were able to tie the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing the deal, thereby 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 ball rolling on a full contract between the Government of New Mexico and its Native tribes. 10 years had been lost for gaming in New Mexico, including Indian casino Bingo.

The not for profit Bingo business has gotten bigger from 1999. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game providers acquired just $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo revenues have grown steadily since then. 2005 saw the greatest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the owners.

Bingo is apparently popular in New Mexico. All sorts of owners try for a slice of the action. With hope, the politicos are done batting around gaming as a key issue like they did in the 1990’s. That’s without doubt wishful thinking.