According to Aieja

Mexican casino activity may growth 10% in 2012

2012-03-15
Reading time 1:17 min
(Mexico).- Miguel Ángel Ochoa Sánchez, President of the Association of Licensees, Operators and Providers of the Entertainment and Betting Industry in Mexico (Aieja), assured that, although 2011 was not a good year because the activity fell 7.5% after the Casino Royale tragedy in Monterrey, in 2012 they will recover what they lost with a growth between 7% and 10%.

“The Casino Royale tragedy was already a terrorist act for which no business is prepared, the same as happened with Twin Towers in New York, but there are higher buildings in Dubai, which are secure… if a drug store or a book-shop burns, it doesn’t mean we are going to ban their construction”, he warned.

That’s why the gaming industry will raise the bet in the next three years, because they aim to double the number of gambling halls with at least 255 more venues at a national level. The growth, he assured, will be even better when the new Games and Draws Law is concluded, which would enable to grant more licenses. However, he considered that the sector has been unfairly demonized.

“It is a healthy entertainment and one of the most controlled industries in Mexico, so it is impossible that it is related to money laundering, on top of the fact that none of the legal casinos has drug dealing activities or prostitution”, assured Ochoa Sánchez. “The 27 licenses existing in Mexico allow up to 561 gambling venues, of which 306 are already operating, so other 225 are pending to communicate their opening before 2015”, he added.

The bet also targets the granting of new licenses, so up to 1,000 gambling venues could be opened in the future. He pointed that there are 90,000 gambling machines in legal casinos in Mexico, but in 2012 they will reach 120,000. “This year, we will increase from 40,000 to 45,000 direct employments and from 120,000 to 150,000 indirect employmets in the whole industry”.

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