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New Mexico has a stormy gambling past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the Amerindian casino bandwagon. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the case.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a task force in Nineteen Ninety to draft a compact with New Mexico Native tribes. When the working group came to an agreement with 2 important local bands a year later, Governor King declined to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.

When a new governor took office in Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that Indian gambling in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the compact with the Indian bands, anti-gambling groups were able to tie the accord up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing a deal, thus costing the state of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.

It required the Compact Negotiation Act, passed by the New Mexico government, to get the process moving on a full contract between the State of New Mexico and its American Indian bands. A decade had been burned for gaming in New Mexico, including American Indian casino Bingo.

The non-profit Bingo industry has gotten bigger since 1999. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game owners brought in only $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and passed a million dollars in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo earnings have grown constantly since that time. Two Thousand and Five saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the owners.

Bingo is apparently beloved in New Mexico. All sorts of operators look for a slice of the pie. With hope, the politicians are done batting over gaming as a key matter like they did back in the 1990’s. That is probably wishful thinking.