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New Mexico has a stormy gaming background. When the IGRA was passed by Congress in 1989, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to cash in on the Amerindian casino craze. Politics guaranteed that would not be the case.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a task force in Nineteen Ninety to create a compact with New Mexico American Indian tribes. When the working group came to an agreement with 2 prominent local bands a year later, Governor King declined to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.

When a new governor took over in Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that Amerindian betting in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the contract with the Native bands, anti-gambling forces were able to tie the accord up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing the compact, thereby costing the state of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.

It required the Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico government, to get the process moving on a full compact between the State of New Mexico and its Indian bands. Ten years had been lost for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Amerindian casino Bingo.

The nonprofit Bingo industry has grown from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game providers acquired just $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have grown steadily since that time. 2005 witnessed the largest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the providers.

Bingo is apparently popular in New Mexico. All sorts of providers try for a bit of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are through batting over gambling as a key issue like they did back in the 1990's. That's without doubt hopeful thinking.