New Mexico has a bitter gambling past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by Congress 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 would not be the case.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a working group in Nineteen Ninety to draft a compact with New Mexico Indian tribes. When the working group came to an accord with two prominent local bands a year later, the Governor refused to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.

When a new governor took office in 1995, it appeared that American Indian gambling in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the compact with the Indian tribes, anti-gaming groups 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, thus costing the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.

It took the Compact Negotiation Act, passed by the New Mexico house, to get the ball rolling on a full accord between the State of New Mexico and its Indian bands. 10 years had been lost for gaming in New Mexico, which includes American Indian casino Bingo.

The nonprofit Bingo industry has increased from 1999. That year, New Mexico non-profit game owners brought in only $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in 2001. Non-profit Bingo earnings have grown constantly since that time. Two Thousand and Five saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the providers.

Bingo is certainly popular in New Mexico. All kinds of owners try for a slice of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are through batting over gaming as an important factor like they did in the 1990’s. That is probably wishful thinking.