New Mexico has a rocky gambling past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by the House in 1989, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the Native casino craze. Politics assured that would not be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a panel in 1990 to create an accord with New Mexico American Indian bands. When the working group arrived at an agreement with 2 prominent local bands a year later, the Governor refused to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took over in 1995, it appeared that Indian gaming in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the contract with the Indian tribes, anti-gambling groups were able to hold the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing the deal, thereby denying the state of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.
It required the Compact Negotiation Act, passed by the New Mexico house, to get the ball rolling on a full accord between the State of New Mexico and its Amerindian tribes. 10 years had been lost for gambling in New Mexico, including Indian casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo business has gotten bigger since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico non-profit game owners brought in just $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have grown steadily since then. Two Thousand and Five saw the greatest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the owners.
Bingo is clearly favored in New Mexico. All sorts of owners try for a slice of the pie. Hopefully, the politicos are done batting over gaming as a key issue like they did in the 1990’s. That’s probably wishful thinking.

