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New Mexico has a bitter gaming background. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by the House in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the American Indian casino bandwagon. Politics assured that would not be the situation.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a task force in 1990 to create a contract with New Mexico American Indian tribes. When the working group arrived at an agreement with two big local tribes a year later, Governor King declined to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until 1994.

When a new governor took office in 1995, it seemed that American Indian gaming in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the contract with the Amerindian tribes, anti-gaming groups were able to hold the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the deal, therefore costing the government 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 legislature, to get the ball rolling on a full compact between the State of New Mexico and its American Indian tribes. 10 years had been burned for gaming in New Mexico, which includes American Indian casino Bingo.

The nonprofit Bingo industry has grown since 1999. In that year, New Mexico non-profit game providers acquired just $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Non-profit Bingo earnings have increased steadily since that time. Two Thousand and Five saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the providers.

Bingo is apparently popular in New Mexico. All sorts of providers look for a bit of the pie. Hopefully, the politicians are through batting around gaming as a key factor like they did in the 90’s. That’s most likely wishful thinking.