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New Mexico has a complex gambling background. When the IGRA was signed by the House in 1989, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the Amerindian casino bandwagon. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the situation.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a panel in Nineteen Ninety to create a compact with New Mexico Indian tribes. When the working group came to an agreement with two big local tribes a year later, the Governor 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 American Indian betting in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the contract with the American Indian tribes, anti-gambling forces were able to hold the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing the accord, 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 house, to get the process moving on a full contract amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Amerindian tribes. Ten years had been squandered for gaming in New Mexico, including Native casino Bingo.

The nonprofit Bingo business has grown from 1999. That year, New Mexico charity game providers acquired only $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed a million dollars in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have increased steadily since then. Two Thousand and Five saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.

Bingo is certainly popular in New Mexico. All kinds of providers look for a piece of the action. Hopefully, the politicians are through batting over gaming as a hot button factor like they did in the 1990’s. That’s without doubt hopeful thinking.