Image by Jorge Aguilar

Mexican President Revoking Recent Casino Licenses

Article by : Helen Oct 29, 2020

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Since casinos were banned in Mexico for dozens of years, one might think that this country doesn’t like casinos. But in fact, the federal government doesn’t like the casinos it cannot take control of. There were many fears regarding the potential organized crime and the big power of foreign investors. There were also many people that were against gambling because of gambling addiction and some other moral grounds. There seemed to be a silver lining for the casino industry during the presidency of Vicente Fox, as a couple of big gambling operators got the permits at that time. In 2004, the Secretary of State Santiago Creel started issuing casino licenses to hundreds of different gambling operators.

However, the current country’s president, Manuel López Obrador, took a different view and announced that significant changes were coming to the Mexican gambling industry. Now, he’s not only shutting down the casinos that got the green light from the former president but also states that no new casino licenses will be issued until his further notice. Interestingly, the story doesn’t end at this point.

After the official president’s order to the Mexican Secretary of the Interior to revoke the previously issued casino permits, a couple of gaming operators did manage to secure the licenses. Thus, Wadcor was granted a permit to open 10 gambling venues under the 12-year license, and True Win Group was allowed to open 1 gambling venue. Both gambling operators belong to one and the same organization – Atracciones y Emociones Vallarta (Vallarta Attractions and Emotions) – that has been operating in the Mexican gambling market for many years.

The anger of Manuel López Obrador is explained by the fact that the gambling operators managed to claim the permits thought the judicial proceedings. After taking their cases to the court, it took not much time for the judges to sign off the companies’ requests.

Although I instructed that no new casino permits be issued, they managed to obtain licenses because they appealed to the courts, but I have now ordered that such permits should be revoked. I requested the Secretary of the Interior to handle the matter and she has just told me that the licenses will be revoked.

Manuel López Obrador has been at the helm since 2018 and has already taken measures to fight corruption at different levels , starting with the government. The president says that there is no more corruption in his office, and the government has already been cleaned up, but this process is not finished so that they still need to keep cleaning down. Obrador also states that “juice businesses will no longer be authorized,” which automatically means no new licenses for the casino operators.

Now, this is a matter between Manuel López Obrador and the casino operators, and there are all great chances that the situation around the Mexican gambling market will get even worse in the near future. The point is that most casino operators claim that the current president oversteps his authority by shutting down the gambling business, and they are ready to confront his policy by any means. The president, at the same time, is not going to stop his show and will do whatever it takes to prevent gambling expansion. So, despite the fact that Mexico is considered to be one o the most popular destinations for casino fans, there are no clear gambling laws again in the country. All is left to be done is to wait and see who is more stubborn – the president or the casinos.