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New Mexico has a stormy gaming 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 guaranteed that wouldn’t be the case.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a working group in 1990 to discuss a compact with New Mexico Indian bands. When the task force arrived at an agreement with two prominent 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 Nineteen Ninety Five, it appeared that Amerindian gambling in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the contract with the Amerindian bands, anti-gaming groups were able to hold the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing a deal, thereby costing the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.

It took the CNA, signed by the New Mexico government, to get the ball rolling on a full compact amongst the State of New Mexico and its Amerindian tribes. 10 years had been squandered for gaming in New Mexico, including Amerindian casino Bingo.

The nonprofit Bingo industry has grown since 1999. That year, New Mexico charity game operators brought in just $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo revenues have increased steadily since then. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the providers.

Bingo is apparently popular in New Mexico. All kinds of providers try for a bit of the pie. Hopefully, the politicians are done batting around gambling as a key matter like they did in the 90’s. That’s most likely hopeful thinking.