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New Mexico has a bitter gaming past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the Amerindian casino craze. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the case.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a task force in Nineteen Ninety to create a contract with New Mexico American Indian tribes. When the task force came to an accord with 2 big local tribes a year later, Governor King refused to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.

When a new governor took office in 1995, it appeared that American Indian gaming in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the accord with the American Indian bands, anti-gaming forces were able to tie the contract up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing the accord, therefore denying the state of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.

It took 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 Indian tribes. 10 years had been squandered for gambling in New Mexico, including Native casino Bingo.

The non-profit Bingo industry has grown from 1999. That year, New Mexico non-profit game owners acquired only $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo earnings have grown constantly since that time. 2005 witnessed the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the owners.

Bingo is apparently popular in New Mexico. All kinds of providers look for a bit of the action. With hope, the politicians are done batting over gaming as an important matter like they did in the 1990’s. That’s probably wishful thinking.

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