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New Mexico has a stormy gaming background. When the IGRA was passed by Congress in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico might be one of the states to cash in on the Indian casino craze. Politics assured that would not be the case.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a working group in Nineteen Ninety to negotiate an accord with New Mexico Amerindian tribes. When the task force arrived at an accord with two big local bands a year later, the Governor declined to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.

When a new governor took over in 1995, it seemed that Indian gambling in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the compact with the Native bands, anti-gaming forces were able to hold the deal up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing a deal, therefore denying the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.

It required the Compact Negotiation Act, passed by the New Mexico house, to get the process moving on a full contract between the Government of New Mexico and its Amerindian tribes. A decade had been burned for gaming in New Mexico, including Native casino Bingo.

The nonprofit Bingo business has grown since 1999. In that year, New Mexico non-profit game operators acquired only $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and passed a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo earnings have increased steadily since then. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the greatest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the providers.

Bingo is certainly favored in New Mexico. All sorts of providers look for a piece of the action. Hopefully, the politicians are through batting over gaming as a hot button issue like they did back in the 1990’s. That’s most likely hopeful thinking.

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