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New Mexico has a bitter gambling past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by Congress in 1989, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the American Indian casino craze. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the situation.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a working group in 1990 to negotiate an accord with New Mexico Amerindian bands. When the working group arrived at an agreement with two prominent local bands a year later, the Governor refused to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until 1994.

When a new governor took office in 1995, it appeared that Indian gambling in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the accord with the Indian tribes, anti-gambling forces were able to tie the deal up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing the accord, thereby 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 process moving on a full accord amongst the State of New Mexico and its American Indian tribes. A decade had been squandered for gambling in New Mexico, which includes American Indian casino Bingo.

The non-profit Bingo business has gotten bigger from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game owners acquired only $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed a 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 earned by the owners.

Bingo is apparently favored in New Mexico. All sorts of operators look for a slice of the pie. With hope, the politicos are done batting around gambling as a hot button issue like they did back in the 90’s. That is most likely wishful thinking.