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New Mexico has a stormy gaming background. When the IGRA was signed by Congress in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico might 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 working group in 1990 to negotiate a contract with New Mexico Native bands. When the panel came to an accord with 2 prominent local tribes a year later, Governor King declined to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until 1994.

When a new governor took over in Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that Indian gaming in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the accord with the American Indian bands, anti-gaming groups were able to hold the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the accord, therefore denying the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.

It took the Compact Negotiation Act, passed by the New Mexico government, to get the process moving on a full accord amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Native bands. Ten years had been squandered for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Indian casino Bingo.

The non-profit Bingo business has gotten bigger since 1999. That year, New Mexico non-profit game owners acquired just $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have grown steadily since that time. 2005 witnessed the greatest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the owners.

Bingo is apparently popular in New Mexico. All types of providers look for a bit of the action. Hopefully, the politicians are through batting around gambling as an important matter like they did back in the 1990's. That is without doubt hopeful thinking.