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

The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a panel in 1990 to discuss an accord with New Mexico Indian tribes. When the panel arrived at an accord with 2 big local tribes a year later, Governor King refused to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.

When a new governor took over in 1995, it seemed that American Indian betting in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the compact with the American Indian bands, anti-gambling forces were able to tie the accord up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing the deal, therefore costing the state 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 contract between the Government of New Mexico and its Amerindian tribes. Ten years had been squandered for gaming in New Mexico, including American Indian casino Bingo.

The nonprofit Bingo industry has increased from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico charity game owners acquired just $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and passed a million dollars in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have increased steadily since then. 2005 witnessed the largest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the providers.

Bingo is categorically popular in New Mexico. All sorts of owners try for a bit of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are done batting around gaming as a hot button factor like they did in the 1990’s. That’s probably hopeful thinking.