G3-247 Report MEXICO - PART TWO
into some venues. In 2011 the casinos took US$589m which was US$50m less than the previous year. The fear eventually diminished and the customers returned.
Rojas Cardona has built one of the biggest gambling empires in Mexico and holds around 60 permits to oper- ate casinos. The attack on Casino Royale also exposed the darker underside of the Mexican casino industry and those arrested say they were pressurising the casi- no owners for payoffs on behalf of Los Zetas, one of Mexico’s two largest crime syndicates.
Cardona has a history of arrests. In the early 2000s he created his first machine slot club Bella Vista in Monterrey. He and his brother Arturo were given a lot of backing and their Las Vegas partnership EMEX Holdings was just one company they set up.
Today, Cardonas operates 22 casinos under the Palmas brand (and probably a number of others) and is one of Mexico’s biggest operators alongside Play City, Grupo Caliente and Codere.
Sadly, the corruption behind this industry goes much 6 2
01 One of the first casinos to set up a fully licensed online casino was Palmas casino which was at the time powered by Playtech software offering over 100 games. In 2011 the operators of Palmas Casino – Entretenimiento de Mexico (EMEX) was acquired by Canadian company, Las Vegas from
Home.com Entertainment Inc (LVFH) who acquired 99 per cent share in the company to take over its online gaming business under the name of
palmasbet.com and
palmaspoker.mx alongside its Playboy Casino Cancun and other 22 casinos.
02 SPIELO International took on a new Operations Manager in Mexico in 2011. Agustin Nieto now coordinates all Atronic’s activities in the country. SPIELO has had presence in the market for some time with success rates with the new Oxygen Cabinet and the performance of Doggie Cash and Magic 5s. Some 230 cabinets were installed at Win&Win Casino operated by Nalibic and Doggie Cash and Magic 5’s were installed at Casino Hipodromo de la Americas.
deeper than a few pay-offs to drug cartels and the entire industry is built upon a very unstable background and designed so political chiefs can hand out licences as favours, enabling casinos to flout the law.
But it seems there is some movement from the govern- ment to rid the country of the illegal stigma. During the summer the local council in Monterrey closed nine casi- nos regarding irregularities with fire regulations. The municipality now wants to change its law banning gam- ing centres under building laws which would basically not permit them to be constructed. The closed casinos are Caliente Valle Oriente, Caliente Gonzalitos, California, YAK Plaza Cumbres, Caliente Garza Sada, YAK Valle Oriente, Miravalle, Folliatti and Crystal Palace.
Meanwhile, Sabia Corporation has applied for permits to operate to open 10 gaming halls, which is currently being discussed at SEGOB to increase the number of licences from 31 to 32.
There are, of course, continual talks and rumours about the law changing in Mexico. Apparently the Ministry is currently preparing a ‘restructuring’ programme of the
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76