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New Mexico has a bitter gambling background. When the IGRA was passed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the Indian casino craze. Politics assured that would not be the situation.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a working group in 1990 to discuss an accord with New Mexico Native tribes. When the task force arrived at an accord with 2 prominent local bands a year later, the Governor declined to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.

When a new governor took office in 1995, it appeared that Indian wagering in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the accord with the Native bands, anti-gambling groups were able to hold the contract up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing the accord, therefore denying the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.

It required the CNA, signed by the New Mexico government, to get the process moving on a full compact between the State of New Mexico and its Indian tribes. A decade had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, including American Indian casino Bingo.

The non-profit Bingo industry has grown since 1999. In that year, New Mexico non-profit game owners brought in just $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo revenues have increased constantly since that time. 2005 witnessed the greatest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the owners.

Bingo is certainly popular in New Mexico. All kinds of providers look for a piece of the pie. Hopefully, the politicians are through batting around gaming as a key factor like they did back in the 1990's. That is without doubt hopeful thinking.