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New Mexico has a bitter gambling history. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by Congress in 1989, it looked like New Mexico would 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 create a contract with New Mexico Amerindian tribes. When the working group came to an accord with two prominent local tribes a year later, the Governor refused to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until 1994.

When a new governor took office in Nineteen Ninety Five, it appeared that Native betting in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the compact with the Indian bands, anti-wagering groups were able to hold the accord up in courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing the compact, therefore costing the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.

It took the Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the ball rolling on a full accord between the Government of New Mexico and its American Indian bands. A decade had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, including American Indian casino Bingo.

The non-profit Bingo business has increased since 1999. In that year, New Mexico non-profit game operators acquired just $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo revenues have increased steadily since then. 2005 saw the greatest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.

Bingo is clearly beloved in New Mexico. All sorts of operators try for a bit of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are through batting over gambling as a hot button factor like they did back in the 90’s. That’s without doubt wishful thinking.

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