Mexican Government Revokes Permits for 19 Gambling Centers Linked to “Casino Czar”

Mexico City, May 21 – The Ministry of the Interior (Segob), through its General Directorate of Games and Sweepstakes, has revoked the operating permits for 19 gambling centers belonging to Entretenimiento de México (Emex), a company associated with Juan José Rojas Cardona, known as “The Casino Czar.”

The affected establishments include Bet in Playa del Carmen, located in the municipality of Solidaridad, Quintana Roo; Crystal Palace in Monterrey; Palmas locations in Escobedo, Santiago, and Guadalupe in Nuevo León; and other venues with the same name in Guaymas, Sonora; La Piedad, Michoacán; León, Guanajuato; San Luis Potosí, and one in Mexico City.

Additional locations impacted are Palmas Bellavista in San Nicolás de los Garza, Nuevo León; Palmas Grand, also in San Nicolás de los Garza; Palmas Lincoln in Monterrey; and Palmas Sportzone in San Pedro Garza García, Nuevo León. Furthermore, five Sportzone establishments in Monterrey, Nuevo León; Pachuca, Hidalgo; San Juan de los Lagos, Jalisco; San Juan del Río, Querétaro; and Tepatitlán, Jalisco, are also affected.

While the gambling centers have not been physically closed, they have remained shut since April 24, when the Ministry of the Interior conducted simultaneous operations across the country and closed six Emex establishments.

This week, the Sixteenth District Court for Administrative Matters in the Federal District denied Emex an injunction against the closure of its gambling centers nationwide, as ordered by the Ministry of the Interior.

Emex filed for the injunction on April 30, arguing against the total cessation of activities in the establishments operating under federal gaming and sweepstakes permit DGAJS/SCEVF/P-06/2005 and its amendments.

However, on Monday, Federal Judge Ricardo Gallardo Vara stated that, based on Article 129, Section I, of the Amparo Law, “it is considered, among others, that harm to the social interest or contravention of public order occurs when, if the suspension is granted: the operation of vice or brothel centers, as well as establishments for gambling with bets or sweepstakes, continues.”

According to an informative note from the Federal Judiciary Council, Emex had requested that the total suspension of activities order not be carried out and that the closure be lifted in the establishments operating under federal gaming and sweepstakes permit DGAJS/SCEVF/P-06/2005 and its amendments.

Emex had also requested that the closure order not be executed on other authorized commercial activities located within the same establishments as the gambling venues, such as restaurants, bars, entertainment centers, auditoriums, and so on.

Regarding this latter claim, the judge noted that concerning the effects and consequences of the closure of commercial activities located within the establishment, it is not apparent that the closure of these, and even less so that it is a direct consequence of the resolution of April 1 of this year, in which the Ministry of the Interior ordered the revocation of the federal gaming and sweepstakes permit, “therefore, this court is unable to rule on the suspension request.”