During a press conference held Tuesday, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced that during his administration, the grant of casino licenses will be suspended and warned that if any entity intends to enact legislation to allow for the opening of new gambling venues, the federal government will resort to the Supreme Court.
"If it is up to the federal government, we won’t allow for new casinos. We still remember what happened when the so-called Gobierno del Cambio (“the government of change”) began authorizing casino openings and we will not fall for the same thing, it would be shameful to do the same,” he stated.
Olga Sánchez Cordero, head of the Mexican Secretariat for Home Affairs (Segob in Spanish), said that pursuant to the federal gambling law in force, the rules for the implementation of gambling as well as the granting of licenses and control over this activity fall within the purview of Segob. "This means that permits can only be granted on a federal level and no authorizations have been issued in the last six years."
President López Obrador said that if local governments enact legislation that challenges the authority of the federal government, they will have to go to the Supreme Court. "No casinos in this country. Citizens wanted a change," he concluded.