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New Mexico has a stormy gambling past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it seemed like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the Native casino craze. Politics guaranteed that would not be the situation.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a task force in Nineteen Ninety to negotiate a contract with New Mexico Amerindian bands. When the working group came to an agreement with two big local bands a year later, Governor King refused to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until 1994.

When a new governor took over in Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that American Indian gambling in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the contract with the American Indian tribes, anti-gambling forces were able to tie the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing the deal, thus denying the government of New Mexico 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 process moving on a full compact between the Government of New Mexico and its Indian bands. A decade had been lost for gaming in New Mexico, including Native casino Bingo.

The non-profit Bingo industry has increased from 1999. In that year, New Mexico charity game operators acquired just $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Not for profit Bingo earnings have increased steadily since then. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the largest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the owners.

Bingo is certainly favored in New Mexico. All sorts of operators look for a slice of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are through batting around gaming as a hot button factor like they did back in the 1990’s. That is probably wishful thinking.