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New Mexico has a rocky gaming history. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by the House in 1989, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the American Indian casino craze. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the situation.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a panel in 1990 to discuss a compact with New Mexico Indian tribes. When the task force came to an accord with 2 big local bands a year later, Governor King declined to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.

When a new governor took office in 1995, it appeared that American Indian betting in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the contract with the Indian tribes, anti-wagering groups were able to tie the deal up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing the compact, therefore 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, signed by the New Mexico house, to get the ball rolling on a full accord between the State of New Mexico and its Amerindian bands. 10 years had been burned for gaming in New Mexico, including Amerindian casino Bingo.

The nonprofit Bingo business has gotten bigger from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico non-profit game operators acquired just $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed one million dollars in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have increased constantly since then. 2005 witnessed the greatest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.

Bingo is clearly favored in New Mexico. All sorts of operators try for a slice of the action. With hope, the politicos are through batting over gambling as an important issue like they did in the 1990’s. That is most likely hopeful thinking.