The Government of Mexico is working on a major revision of the legal framework regulating casinos, including online gambling platforms. President Claudia Simbaum stated that his Government was promoting an updated legal system aimed at closing regulatory gaps, strengthening monitoring mechanisms and curbing the brutal growth of digital games. Claudia Simbaum pointed out that there were significant gaps in the existing legislation, as it was almost non-existent when it was enacted.
At a recent press conference, the President stressed the seriousness of the problem: “The number of digital bets is now huge”, and the existing law “must be updated, as this pattern of bets has not yet appeared at the beginning of the legislation”. She noted that over-advocacy of online gambling in social and traditional media had spread and that there was an urgent need to improve industry transparency and prevent the misuse of digital platforms through new regulatory models. The central objective of the reform is to combat money-laundering through gambling. Claudia Simbaum warned that digital platforms had become a potential conduit for illicit financial flows: “Unless regulation is updated, these systems will become instruments of money-laundering”. The reform plan cuts off the illicit financial chain by increasing the traceability of funds and establishing uniform operating standards for entities and online casinos. The legislative project is being carried out by the Federal Financial Intelligence Agency (UIF), the Ministry of Finance (SHCP) and the Ministry of the Interior (Segob). The three agencies will jointly develop a unified strategy. Filling the current legal loopholes that allow illicit funds to flow freely in the digital gaming ecology. Claudia Simbaum stressed: “Our goal is not to restrict entertainment, but to create a fair and transparent environment in which illicit funds cannot flow in a regulatory vacuum”.
Although the reform programme was still in the design stage, the Government had taken strong law enforcement action. UIF recently announced that criminal proceedings would be filed with the Attorney General ‘ s Office (FGR) for alleged money-laundering in 13 casinos in eight counties. The investigation found that there were repeated suspicious financial acts in these establishments that were consistent with the characteristics of international money-laundering. The casinos involved are located in Jalisco, Nuevo León, Sinaloa, Sonora, Baja California, Mexico, Chiapas and Mexico City. The UIF statement noted that these unusual operating patterns were highly consistent with global money-laundering indicators, highlighting the urgency of updating the regulatory framework. Claudia Simbaum clarified, in particular, that reform was not a disincentive to the legitimate gambling industry, but rather promoted “transparency, fiscal responsibility and a secure digital environment”. “Regulation is not intended to limit entertainment”, she stressed, “to ensure transparency, traceability and fiscal fairness”. The Government aims to build a regulatory system adapted to technological developments and to respond to the evolution of financial crime patterns. The current channels of illicit financial flows will be completely blocked by establishing regulations and strengthening oversight mechanisms for online platforms.
It will be a milestone in Mexico ‘ s history of gambling regulation. This is in line with the overall strategy of national digital governance, financial security and responsible innovation. In the face of the rapid expansion of online gaming, Mexico is taking the initiative to reshape the rules of the industry while safeguarding consumer rights and national financial security. The central theme of this regulatory change is clear — to allow the entertainment industry to operate in the sun, to ensure a vibrant digital lottery ecology and never to become a haven for illegal funds.