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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 get on the Amerindian casino craze. Politics guaranteed that would not be the situation.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a task force in Nineteen Ninety to draft a compact with New Mexico Native bands. When the task force came to an agreement with two prominent 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 passed the accord with the Native tribes, anti-gaming groups were able to tie the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing the compact, 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 accord amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Native bands. Ten years had been lost for gaming in New Mexico, which includes Amerindian casino Bingo.

The nonprofit Bingo business has increased from 1999. In that year, New Mexico non-profit game providers brought in just $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and passed a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Non-profit Bingo revenues have increased steadily since then. Two Thousand and Five saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the providers.

Bingo is categorically popular in New Mexico. All types of providers look for a piece of the pie. Hopefully, the politicians are through batting around gaming as an important factor like they did back in the 1990's. That's most likely wishful thinking.