Mexico: A proposal to increase casino taxes was presented in Guadalajara

The head of the Local Treasury, Hugo Alberto Michel Uribe, said that this increment does not seek to “ban” or “inhibit” such activity, but to strenghten the public finances in order to be able to respond to the effects that it may bring on society.

The entity ellaborated a report on the backgrounds of other Mexican cities with regards to casinos. Michel Uribe commented on the matter: “In many places, the effect takes a while, a casino is installed and it does not become a problem for the public health until a few years, when people even commit crimes in order to obtain money to keep on gambling; that kind of social effects and public health problems, as well as a relationship with an increment in crimes, caused the increment”.

The officer asked to remember that the experiences in Mexican cities with casinos are still “relatively new”, so it will have to keep learning along the way on those effects, which he called “externalities”: “These externalities will lead to an increment of the public expenses; I believe in a large extent the local public expense, because the street have to be controlled, people with gambling problems have to be treated and crimes must be prevented. Besides, diverse actions and campaigns have to be performed, and a way to compensate it would be a bigger charge of licenses and other concepts for those transfers”.
 
Besides, a charge of us$ 390 is considered for each gaming machine in the report that still has to be approved by the Council.