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New Mexico has a bitter gambling background. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by Congress in 1989, it looked 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 appointed a task force in Nineteen Ninety to negotiate an accord with New Mexico Amerindian bands. When the panel arrived at an accord with two important local tribes a year later, Governor King refused to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.

When a new governor took over in 1995, it seemed that Native betting in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the accord with the Native bands, anti-gaming forces were able to tie the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing the accord, thereby costing 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 legislature, to get the ball rolling on a full contract amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Amerindian bands. A decade had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, including Amerindian casino Bingo.

The nonprofit Bingo industry has grown from 1999. That year, New Mexico charity game providers acquired only $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. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the greatest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.

Bingo is clearly beloved in New Mexico. All types of owners look for a bit of the pie. Hopefully, the politicos are through batting over gaming as a key matter like they did in the 1990’s. That is most likely wishful thinking.