Mexico
May Lift Casino Ban
MEXICO CITY
- The options are few for anyone who wants to gamble in Mexico.
They can go to the horse races or buy a lottery ticket or
enter the shady world of illicit dog fights and underground poker
parlors. That may soon change.
Mexican lawmakers are pushing to end a 70-year-old ban on casinos
in areas frequented by tourists, arguing that they will attract
tourists and foreign investors and create jobs. President Vicente
Fox (news - web sites) is also in favor.
The Tourism
Commission in the lower house of Congress is putting the finishing
touches on a bill that would legalize casinos, possibly at the next
legislative session starting in September.
In the 1930s,
President Lazaro Cardenas directed Congress to ban gambling, worrying
that casinos were dens of organized crime and corruption. But politicians
now say that, properly regulated, they are a sound economic gamble.
Casinos in beach
resorts, border towns and Mexico City, open to foreigners and Mexicans
alike, could generate as much as dlrs 1.3 billion in revenue a year,
plus an extra dlrs 1 billion for the government in taxes and licensing
fees, according to estimates prepared for Congress by the National
Council of Business and Tourism.
But Mexico would
need more than dlrs 2 billion in investments to build at least 11
casinos and accompanying hotels, the council says.
Critics say
Mexico would have to overcome heavy odds to set up a regulatory
system that foreign investors could trust, and make sure that casinos
are not used for money laundering.
"That's
the big thing that Mexico needs to look at, and pass a statute that
tightly controls gaming operations," said James Jones, a former
U.S. ambassador to Mexico who now represents U.S. gaming businesses
interested in setting up casinos here.
The proposed
law calls for a commission to do everything from issuing licenses
to investigating finances. "The law is going to have power,"
said Jaime Mantecon, the legislator leading the casino effort in
Congress. "We want to create a law that doesn't allow for any
illegal activity whatsoever."
Without tough
regulation, says Frank Fahrenkopf, president of the American Gaming
Association, "No American licensee is going to take a chance
of jeopardizing their license in the States to open a casino in
Mexico."
But if such
a law is passed, plenty of foreign investors are interested, say
representatives of the gambling industry in the United States.
William Wortman,
director of the Nevada
Palace Hotel and Casino, has proposed
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