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A key congressional ally of President Claudia Sheinbaum has said the new administration will soon submit a bill to reform Mexico's law that governs gambling, which has not been changed since 1947.
Deputy Ricardo Monreal Ávila, who is chief coordinator for Sheinbaum's Morena party in the Chamber of Deputies, told local reporters after a meeting with newly appointed secretary of the interior Rosa Icela Rodríguez that Sheinbaum’s office was drafting the gambling bill.
Monreal Ávila said that within weeks “the Ministry of the Interior or the government, the Executive, will be sending an initiative for a new gaming and lottery law, which has not been modified since 1946 (sic), to fight corruption in this area, to avoid extortion and to make sure that people involved in this industry pay the taxes that legally apply, according to the income they receive”.
He delivered the news amidst a much broader update about multiple government initiatives, swiftly moving on from the topic to other points on the agenda, including possibly receiving mass deportations from the United States’ incoming Trump administration.
At least one Mexican gambling lawyer consulted by Vixio GamblingCompliance was dubious about the timeline shared by the federal deputy, however.
“I guess that this is a future plan. I really don’t think they have a bill yet,” said the lawyer.
The Mexican gambling industry has long called for reforms to the 1947 law, which has been supplemented through a 2004 decree and subsequent amendments to allow for casino games and online gambling.
The industry continues to face regulatory issues such as double taxation in a system where states and municipalities can issue their own taxes alongside those of the federal government.
A more significant regulatory risk arose last year when outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador published a decree effectively banning the operation of slot machines or table games in gaming halls, pending the expiration of current licences.
Individual injunctions have been granted to various operators and suppliers to temporarily protect them from the impact of that 2023 decree, but the industry at large is awaiting a broader court ruling declaring the entire decree unconstitutional.
When Sheinbaum was first elected in January, the industry had moderate hopes for her six-year term that began when the former mayor of Mexico City was sworn into office on October 1.
Miguel Ángel Ochoa Sánchez, the president of Mexican trade group AIEJA, told Vixio GamblingCompliance at the time: “She has experience as a ruler and as a legislator; let's hope that she strengthens relations between all sectors, so that a united Mexico can move forward”.
