Mexico congressman pushes for public gambling license registry

A federal congressman from Mexico’s Institutional Revolutionary Party has introduced a proposal requiring the Secretaría de Gobernación (Segob) to publish, in open-data format, the full list of permits granted to casinos and online betting operators in the country.

The initiative, entered into the legislative information system by Rubén Ignacio Moreira Valdez, covers four specific demands: disclosing all validated licenses for remote betting centers and lottery halls, detailing the operational, suspended and closed establishments per state for at least the past five years, publishing the universe of authorized digital platforms and reinforcing oversight to prevent money laundering.

The proposal arrives as Mexico's regulatory framework remains anchored to the Federal Games and Lottery Law of 1947, a statute that predates online betting, mobile apps and cross-border digital platforms. That gap has created practical difficulties for Segob, the ministry tasked with overseeing the sector, whose existing license records have been described by legislators as scattered and incomplete.

The money laundering angle gives the proposal additional weight: In a recent enforcement action, the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) identified at least 10 casinos operating in Mexico as vehicles for illicit financial flows, resulting in sanctions against 27 companies and individuals. 

OFAC documentation linked those operations to more than $2m laundered between 2017 and 2024 and pointed to connections with the Sinaloa cartel.

Moreira Valdez's proposal frames a public registry as a consumer protection tool as much as an anti-money laundering mechanism, arguing that any person, not only authorities, should be able to verify whether a platform holds a valid license. 

The context is key: analysts expect betting activity in Mexico to increase significantly ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.