Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has revealed that no more casino licenses will be provided in the country after asking Olga Sánchez Cordero, the Secretary of the Interior, to investigate the possibility of unlawful licenses being issued previously.

The decision has been made following the President’s doubts over the validity of some of the licenses being accepted under President Vicente Fox’s tenure between December 1, 2000 and November 30, 2006 . 

Along with insisting that no more casinos will open right now, López also claimed that Fox’s processes to award licenses in the country were ‘inadequate’.

Presidente López commented: “We are going to ‘clean up’ the government. We have a problem and we are going to solve it because we are coherent and persistent. We want no more casinos to open and no more permits to be granted. Some that began during Vicente Fox’s administration were not adequate. We are not going to grant such permits.

“Some licences may have been issued but that is because we need to clean up the government and we have been doing that for a long time now, but we are not done yet. It is sometimes noted that for each authorised casino about seven million pesos are obtained.

“We would have to look into that. The Secretary of the Interior has to conduct an investigation and if these licences have been wrongfully granted, they should be revoked.”

Additionally, The Ministry of the Interior (Segob) has announced that during the present administration it has refused a multitude of licenses, with some establishments being closed whilst others have been denied the opportunity to enter into the sports betting market.