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New Mexico has a stormy gaming past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by Congress in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the Amerindian casino bandwagon. Politics assured that would not be the case.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a task force in Nineteen Ninety to draft a contract with New Mexico Amerindian tribes. When the panel came to an agreement with two 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 over in Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that Indian betting 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 accord up in courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the compact, thereby denying the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.

It took the Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the ball rolling on a full contract amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Amerindian bands. Ten years had been lost for gaming in New Mexico, including Indian casino Bingo.

The nonprofit Bingo business has increased since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico charity game owners brought in only $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo earnings have increased constantly since that time. 2005 saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.

Bingo is clearly favored in New Mexico. All kinds of providers try for a bit of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are through batting around gambling as an important issue like they did back in the 90’s. That is most likely hopeful thinking.

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