New Mexico has a complex gambling background. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the Native casino craze. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the situation.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a task force in 1990 to draft a contract with New Mexico Native bands. When the working group arrived at an accord with two important local bands a year later, Governor King declined to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until 1994.

When a new governor took office in 1995, it appeared that American Indian wagering in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the accord with the Native bands, anti-wagering forces were able to hold the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing a deal, thus denying the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.

It took the Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico government, to get the process moving on a full accord amongst the State of New Mexico and its Indian bands. A decade had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Amerindian casino Bingo.

The non-profit Bingo industry has increased from 1999. That year, New Mexico charity game owners brought in just $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Non-profit Bingo revenues have increased constantly since that time. 2005 saw the greatest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the providers.

Bingo is apparently favored in New Mexico. All sorts of providers look for a slice of the pie. Hopefully, the politicos are through batting around gaming as a hot button matter like they did in the 90’s. That’s probably wishful thinking.