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New Mexico has a complex gambling past. When the IGRA was passed by Congress in 1989, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the American Indian casino bandwagon. Politics assured that would not be the case.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a task force in Nineteen Ninety to create a compact with New Mexico Native tribes. When the task force arrived at an accord with two prominent local tribes a year later, the Governor refused to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until 1994.

When a new governor took office in 1995, it seemed that Native betting in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the accord with the Native tribes, anti-gaming groups were able to tie the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the compact, therefore costing the government of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.

It took the Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico government, to get the ball rolling on a full compact amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Indian tribes. A decade had been lost for gambling in New Mexico, including Indian casino Bingo.

The nonprofit Bingo business has gotten bigger since 1999. In that year, New Mexico non-profit game providers brought in just $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo earnings have grown steadily since then. 2005 saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.

Bingo is clearly favored in New Mexico. All sorts of providers try for a slice of the pie. With hope, the politicos are done batting around gaming as a key matter like they did back in the 90’s. That’s probably wishful thinking.