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New Mexico has a complex gaming past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by Congress in 1989, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the Amerindian casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that wouldn't be the case.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a task force in 1990 to negotiate a compact with New Mexico Amerindian tribes. When the working group arrived at an accord with two important local tribes a year later, Governor King declined to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until 1994.

When a new governor took over in 1995, it appeared that Native gambling in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the accord with the Indian bands, anti-gaming groups were able to hold the accord up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing the accord, thus costing the state 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 ball rolling on a full contract between the State of New Mexico and its Amerindian bands. A decade had been burned for gaming in New Mexico, which includes American Indian casino Bingo.

The non-profit Bingo industry has gotten bigger since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico charity game providers acquired only $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded one million dollars in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have grown steadily since that time. 2005 witnessed the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.

Bingo is clearly popular in New Mexico. All sorts of owners look for a slice of the action. Hopefully, the politicians are through batting over gambling as an important matter like they did in the 1990's. That's most likely wishful thinking.