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

The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a task force in Nineteen Ninety to create an accord with New Mexico American Indian bands. When the task force arrived at an accord with two big local tribes a year later, the Governor refused to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until 1994.

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

It took the CNA, signed by the New Mexico government, to get the ball rolling on a full contract amongst the State of New Mexico and its Native tribes. Ten years had been burned for gaming in New Mexico, which includes American Indian casino Bingo.

The non-profit Bingo industry has increased since 1999. In that year, New Mexico charity game owners brought in only $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed a million dollars in 2001. Non-profit Bingo earnings have increased constantly since that time. 2005 saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the owners.

Bingo is certainly popular in New Mexico. All sorts of operators look for a bit of the pie. Hopefully, the politicians are through batting around gaming as a key matter like they did in the 90’s. That is without doubt wishful thinking.