Casinos will face the regulation against slot machines with appeals for protection

Currently, said the president of the Association of Permit Holders, Operators and Suppliers of the Entertainment and Gambling Industry in Mexico (Aieja), Miguel Ángel Ochoa, the strategy goes in two directions.

At this moment, the two actions are: the issue of protection, on the one hand; and the issue of the promotion of a Federal Law on Games and Sweepstakes, he commented.

Protections against the new regulations
On November 16, the federal government published a decree in the Official Gazette of the Federation (DOF) in which it was established that no new permits will be granted nor those in force will be renewed for the operation of slot machines.

According to Aieja, games of this type represent 85% of the business. So the idea will be to combat these measures through protection.

Among the criticisms made by the industry to the new regulation, is that despite the fact that it was opened to public consultation during the previous months, the National Commission for Regulatory Improvement (Conamer) ignored the comments.

For this reason, the president of Aieja explained that they will opt for judicialization to avoid the closure of businesses in the medium term.

“I believe that if we achieve a new Federal Gaming Law that provides certainty and tranquility, then surely we will not have a problem. If not, we have the protections that will allow the renewals of the permits to be negotiated,” said Miguel Ángel Ochoa.

He added that although this measure will not have immediate effects, in the next five years the majority of casinos will be affected, whose permits expire between 2028 and 2033. While all permits will not be renewed again after 2038.

In the process of reviewing the proposed regulation, casino industrialists complained that these measures would limit games and would even end up driving customers away from gaming centers.

While they even cited comments from the industry workers themselves in the sense that seeing their jobs at risk, their alternative would be to join the informal gaming industry. In addition, it is warned that slot machine manufacturing companies will withdraw their investments from the country as they see no future in the business.

The decree also contemplates that the Ministry of the Interior, to which the General Directorate of Games and Sweepstakes is attached, will issue new guidelines in relation to the way of determining the payment of uses, a fee that permit holders pay to the Federation for the use of your permission. In 2022, this concept reached 1,277.7 million pesos.

Federal Law on Games and Sweepstakes, the other front of the casinos
On the other hand, the gaming and sweepstakes industries will aim to reach an agreement to modify the Federal Law that regulates the sector, which has remained unchanged since 1947, when it came into force.

The Law in force dates back to 1947. At that time there were no gaming machines, there was no internet, there were no cell phones. So, the regulations, these modifications are working on a really obsolete law. The intention is to work on a new bill, Ochoa indicated.

He assured that the industry has maintained contacts with the Ministry of the Interior, as well as with legislators so that new regulations can be discussed starting in February 2024, in the last session of the current Congress.