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New Mexico has a rocky gaming past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the Indian casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that would not be the case.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a working group in Nineteen Ninety to negotiate a contract with New Mexico Amerindian tribes. When the task force came to an agreement with 2 big local bands a year later, Governor King declined to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until 1994.

When a new governor took over in 1995, it seemed that Indian wagering in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the compact with the American Indian tribes, anti-wagering groups were able to hold the deal up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing the deal, therefore denying the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.

It took the CNA, passed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the ball rolling on a full contract between the Government of New Mexico and its Amerindian bands. Ten years had been burned for gaming in New Mexico, including Amerindian casino Bingo.

The non-profit Bingo business has increased since 1999. That year, New Mexico non-profit game providers brought in only $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo earnings have grown constantly since that time. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the biggest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the operators.

Bingo is categorically favored in New Mexico. All kinds of providers look for a bit of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are done batting around gaming as a key matter like they did back in the 1990's. That is probably wishful thinking.