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Mexico – Tourism group demands answers before Mexican casino law is introduced
By Phil - 7 September 2015
Chairman of the National Tourist Business Council (CNET), Pablo Azcarraga has requested that the newly appointed Secretary of Tourism, Enrique de la Madrid Cordero, define the issue of new casinos in the country as soon as possible.
Mr Azcarraga said that the Council will put forward their concerns in the meeting with the Minister which is scheduled to be held shortly. During the meeting he will highlight fears that new gaming laws, if implemented without adequate regulation, could jeopardise tourism in the region.
“Due to the enormous importance of casinos to the tourism sector, the new secretary has to be very careful, we as employers do not want to feel removed (from the process), we want to stay involved and see that it is possible for it to be a good thing for the country, and not end up being something that threatens the tourism sector in Mexico,” he said.
Mr Azcarraga expressed his fears that the government could implement regulation which has not been adequately studied and where successes in other markets have not been taken into account while developing the new law. He went onto say that casinos should generate a greater outlay of international currencies, and should not be an exporter of national currency abroad, if the casinos are owned by foreign companies. However he said that he was still undecided as to what would be the best way forward for the industry in Mexico.
“I do not know which model would be good for Mexico but what I do know from recent experiences is that to do something disorganised affects the country while doing something right such as in places like Macau, generates a very large boom,” he said.
The proposed Federal Law of Games and Raffles, which is currently under discussion in the Senate, provides for the authorisation of operators to houses up to 30 electronic gaming machines on site, which will allow for small scale casinos which can be established in hotels and restaurants.
In March the Interior Ministry announced that it was considering the resort community of Nuevo Vallarta and the city of Puerto Penasco as possible centres of entertainment and gambling in Mexico. Marcela González Salas, then Head of the Gaming Board in the Interior Ministry, said that Puerto Penasco would be able to take advantage of its proximity with the United States in order to attract more customers to its casinos, while new casinos in Nuevo Vallarta would go hand in hand with the arrival of the Cirque du Soleil theme park, scheduled to open in 2018. In 2014 Cirque du Soleil, and Grupo Vidanta, a developer of resorts and tourism infrastructure in Mexico, announced plans to construct and operate a theme park in the city.
Other possible changes to Mexico’s gaming laws could see large scale casino complexes in Mexico. According to some reports emerging in local media, so called “Preferred Complexes” would be allotted in tourist hotspots that are on the Riviera Maya. These would be in the state of Quintana Roo, the town of Los Cabos in Baja California Sur, the Riviera Nayarit, on the border of Jalisco and Nayarit, and Puerto Penasco in the state of Sonora – zones which have already been agreed upon by the Ministry of Tourism.
