- The Ministry of the Interior in Mexico has announced plans to establish a National Institute of Gaming and work with the House of Representatives to finalize a draft of new gambling laws.
- The proposal for a National Institute of Gaming will be presented to parliament next week.
The Ministry of the Interior in Mexico has announced plans to establish a National Institute of Gaming and work with the House of Representatives to finalize a draft of new gambling laws.
Poker players who left the US to play from Mexico have been concerned about early drafts of the proposed bill. The nationalistic nature of the proposed measures would effectively exclude many international operators and add high gaming taxes.
The concern is premature. While there are strong lobbying interests, and plenty of political posturing, there is still no proposed text which has any authority.
Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong has released a statement together with the head of the Parliamentary working group Ricardo Mejía Berdeja, announcing their commitment to work together on the text. To this end they have formed a new group which includes regulators, junior ministers and politicians to create the new draft.
The proposal for a National Institute of Gaming will be presented to parliament next week. The proposal is that the Interior Minister, five other ministers together with experts in business, education and research will establish compliance procedures to implement the new laws.
Several attempts have been made to introduce a gambling bill over the last few years, and all have failed. The extant gaming laws date back to 1947 and are agreed by almost all to be in need of change—so far Mexican politicians have failed to agree on how they should change. The implementation of any new laws is not likely to be imminent.
