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New Mexico has a rocky gaming background. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by Congress in 1989, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the Amerindian casino craze. Politics guaranteed that wouldn't be the situation.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a working group in 1990 to negotiate an accord with New Mexico Native tribes. When the panel arrived at an agreement with 2 important local tribes a year later, Governor King refused to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until 1994.

When a new governor took office in 1995, it seemed that Indian betting in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the compact with the Indian bands, anti-gaming groups were able to tie the accord up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing a deal, thereby denying the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.

It took the Compact Negotiation Act, passed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the ball rolling on a full contract amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Native bands. A decade had been burned for gaming in New Mexico, including American Indian casino Bingo.

The not for profit Bingo business has increased since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico charity game owners brought in 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 increased constantly since then. 2005 saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.

Bingo is clearly favored in New Mexico. All types of operators try for a bit of the pie. Hopefully, the politicians are through batting around gaming as a hot button factor like they did back in the 1990's. That's probably wishful thinking.