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New Mexico has a bitter gambling background. When the IGRA was passed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the Native casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the case.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a panel in Nineteen Ninety to draft a compact with New Mexico Amerindian bands. When the panel came to an accord with two big local tribes a year later, Governor King refused to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until 1994.

When a new governor took over in Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that American Indian wagering in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the contract with the Indian bands, anti-wagering forces were able to hold the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing the deal, thus costing the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.

It took the CNA, signed by the New Mexico government, to get the ball rolling on a full compact amongst the Government of New Mexico and its American Indian bands. 10 years had been squandered for gambling in New Mexico, including American Indian casino Bingo.

The nonprofit Bingo industry has gotten bigger since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico charity game owners brought in only $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed a million dollars in 2001. Non-profit Bingo earnings have increased steadily since that time. 2005 saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the owners.

Bingo is apparently favored in New Mexico. All sorts of owners try for a piece of the pie. Hopefully, the politicians are through batting over gaming as an important matter like they did back in the 1990’s. That is most likely wishful thinking.