New Mexico has a rocky gambling past. When the IGRA was signed by the House in 1989, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the Native casino bandwagon. Politics assured that would not be the situation.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a task force in Nineteen Ninety to draft an accord with New Mexico Amerindian bands. When the panel came to an accord with 2 prominent local tribes a year later, the Governor refused to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.

When a new governor took office in Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that Indian wagering in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the accord with the Indian bands, anti-wagering forces were able to hold the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing the deal, therefore denying the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees 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 American Indian bands. A decade had been squandered for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Amerindian casino Bingo.

The non-profit Bingo business has gotten bigger since 1999. That year, New Mexico non-profit game owners brought in just $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo revenues have increased steadily since then. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the largest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the owners.

Bingo is apparently favored in New Mexico. All kinds of providers look for a bit of the pie. With hope, the politicians are done batting around gambling as an important factor like they did in the 1990’s. That’s probably hopeful thinking.