New Mexico has a rocky gambling background. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by Congress in 1989, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the American Indian casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the situation.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a working group in 1990 to create an accord with New Mexico American Indian tribes. When the panel arrived at an accord with 2 prominent local tribes a year later, the Governor declined to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until 1994.

When a new governor took over in 1995, it appeared that Native betting in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the compact with the Native bands, anti-wagering forces were able to tie the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing the deal, thus costing the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.

It required the CNA, passed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the ball rolling on a full contract amongst the State of New Mexico and its Amerindian bands. A decade had been lost for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Amerindian casino Bingo.

The nonprofit Bingo business has gotten bigger from 1999. In that year, New Mexico charity game providers acquired just $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo earnings have increased constantly since that time. Two Thousand and Five saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the providers.

Bingo is categorically beloved in New Mexico. All sorts of operators look for a bit of the pie. With hope, the politicians are through batting over gambling as an important issue like they did back in the 90’s. That’s most likely hopeful thinking.