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New Mexico has a complex gambling past. 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 cash in on the Indian casino bandwagon. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the case.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a panel in 1990 to draft a compact with New Mexico Amerindian tribes. When the task force came to an agreement with two important local bands 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 appeared that American Indian betting in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the compact with the Native bands, anti-gaming forces were able to hold the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing the compact, thus costing the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.

It took the CNA, passed by the New Mexico house, to get the ball rolling on a full accord between the State of New Mexico and its Native bands. A decade had been squandered for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Amerindian casino Bingo.

The nonprofit Bingo business has gotten bigger from 1999. In that year, New Mexico non-profit game operators brought in just $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed one million dollars in 2001. Non-profit Bingo revenues have grown constantly since then. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the biggest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the operators.

Bingo is apparently favored in New Mexico. All sorts of operators try for a bit of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are through batting around gambling as a hot button matter like they did in the 90’s. That’s most likely wishful thinking.