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New Mexico has a stormy gambling background. When the IGRA was signed by Congress in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the Indian casino craze. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the situation.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a working group in Nineteen Ninety to draft a contract with New Mexico Indian bands. When the task force arrived at an agreement with two important local tribes a year later, the Governor declined to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until 1994.

When a new governor took office in 1995, it appeared that American Indian betting in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the compact with the American Indian bands, anti-gaming groups were able to tie the contract 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 many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.

It required the CNA, passed by the New Mexico house, to get the ball rolling on a full contract between the Government of New Mexico and its Indian tribes. Ten years had been lost for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Indian casino Bingo.

The non-profit Bingo industry has increased since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico non-profit game owners brought in only $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Non-profit Bingo revenues have increased steadily since then. Two Thousand and Five saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the operators.

Bingo is apparently favored in New Mexico. All kinds of providers look for a bit of the pie. Hopefully, the politicians are done batting over gambling as an important matter like they did back in the 90’s. That’s probably wishful thinking.