New Mexico has a bitter gaming background. When the IGRA was signed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the Indian casino craze. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the situation.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a task force in 1990 to create a compact with New Mexico American Indian bands. When the panel arrived at an accord with two important local tribes a year later, the Governor declined to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.

When a new governor took office in 1995, it appeared that Native gambling in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the accord with the Indian tribes, anti-gambling forces were able to hold the deal up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing a deal, thereby costing the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.

It required the CNA, signed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the process moving on a full accord between the State of New Mexico and its Native bands. A decade had been lost for gaming in New Mexico, including Amerindian casino Bingo.

The not for profit Bingo industry has grown from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico non-profit game owners acquired only $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo earnings have increased steadily since that time. 2005 witnessed the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.

Bingo is apparently popular in New Mexico. All kinds of providers look for a bit of the pie. With hope, the politicians are through batting around gaming as a hot button matter like they did back in the 1990’s. That’s probably hopeful thinking.