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New Mexico has a stormy gaming past. When the IGRA was passed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, 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 announced a task force in 1990 to draft a contract with New Mexico Native tribes. When the task force arrived at an accord with two big 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 office in Nineteen Ninety Five, it appeared that Native gambling in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the accord with the Native bands, anti-gaming groups were able to tie the accord up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the deal, thus costing the government of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.

It took the CNA, passed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the ball rolling on a full contract between the Government of New Mexico and its Native tribes. A decade had been lost for gambling in New Mexico, including Native casino Bingo.

The non-profit Bingo industry has grown since 1999. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game providers brought in just $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and passed a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Not for profit Bingo earnings have increased steadily since that time. 2005 witnessed the greatest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the operators.

Bingo is clearly beloved in New Mexico. All sorts of providers look for a bit of the pie. Hopefully, the politicians are through batting around gambling as a hot button issue like they did back in the 90’s. That is most likely wishful thinking.