Interior Ministry’s request to clarify the legal status of casinos rejected by the Court.

Mexican Supreme Court Rejects Government’s Bid to Intervene in Casino Legal Battles

MEXICO CITY (AGENCIA REFORMA) – The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) has turned down a request from the Ministry of the Interior (Segob) to weigh in on the legal status of the casino industry in Mexico. This decision comes as casino companies have been successfully securing legal protections allowing them to offer card games and roulette.

During a private session on March 26, the First Chamber of the Court dismissed Segob’s petition to reassume jurisdiction over six appeals that were on the verge of being granted by two collegiate courts.

These appeals challenge the reforms to the Regulations of the Law on Games and Sweepstakes, enacted by former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in November 2023.

Companies involved in these appeals include Grupo Caliente, Operadora de Coincidencias Numéricas (owner of 17 casinos under brands like Winpot and Crown Supreme), and slot machine manufacturer Zitro Games.

The cases will now be resolved by the Second and Twelfth Collegiate Courts for Administrative Matters.

The Supreme Court determined that the Ministry of the Interior lacked the standing to request the Court to exercise its power of attraction, requiring that one of the justices of the Chamber endorse the petition.

Previously, on January 21, Espectáculos Deportivos de Occidente, Eventos Festivos de México, and Atracciones y Emociones Vallarta won non-appealable injunctions against the regulations in the Twelfth Collegiate Court, which included authorization to offer card games, roulette, and dice.

López Obrador’s reform aimed to tighten casino permits and prohibit the installation of new slot machines. However, it has had the opposite effect, providing companies in the sector with a legal avenue to challenge ambiguities in the regulations that have existed for decades.

Three federal judges have ruled that the entire reform is unconstitutional and that casinos can offer card games, dice, and roulette because the Federal Law on Games and Sweepstakes (LFJS), which has not been amended by Congress since 1947, permits them.

One of these judges, Gabriel Regis, is now a candidate for minister of the Supreme Court.

According to the rulings, dice should be allowed because the LFJS expressly authorizes them, and other games should be permitted because the final result depends, to a greater or lesser extent, on chance rather than the participant’s skill, making them similar to a sweepstake.

Both the judges and the Collegiate Court agreed that dice, card games, and roulette are legal, despite López Obrador’s regulatory reform rejecting their classification as “sweepstakes.”

Regarding the prohibition of installing new slot machines, distinct from those already in existence, the judges have also ruled against it, as they were endorsed by the SCJN in 2016, using the same argument that they are games of chance similar to a sweepstake.