New Mexico has a complex gaming background. When the IGRA was signed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to cash in on the Amerindian casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that would not be the situation.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a panel in 1990 to discuss a contract with New Mexico Amerindian tribes. When the working group arrived at an accord with 2 big local bands a year later, the Governor refused to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until 1994.

When a new governor took office in 1995, it appeared that American Indian gaming in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the accord with the American Indian tribes, anti-gambling forces were able to tie the deal up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the accord, thus denying the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.

It took the Compact Negotiation Act, passed by the New Mexico house, to get the process moving on a full accord between the State of New Mexico and its Indian bands. A decade had been squandered for gaming in New Mexico, including Amerindian casino Bingo.

The nonprofit Bingo industry has grown from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico charity game owners brought in just $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Not for profit Bingo earnings have increased constantly since then. Two Thousand and Five saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the owners.

Bingo is categorically popular in New Mexico. All sorts of owners look for a bit of the pie. With hope, the politicos are through batting over gambling as a key factor like they did in the 1990’s. That’s without doubt wishful thinking.