Gambling and thus casinos are a relatively new legal concept in Mexico. Gambling first became illegal when President Lazaro Cardenas took office way back in 1935. Up until then there had been a number of small French casinos. The Mexican revolution took place in 1911, and saw the all the French colonists driven out, along with many of their ideas. French casinos had become a dying breed after the revolution, so it wasn’t such a huge step by the President to ban them. Mounting pressure from the Catholic Church helped to see the ban on casinos extended in 1947 to cover all forms of gambling, including dog and horse racing. This being said, these laws were not enforced very strongly, and numerous illegal operation sprang up and ran pretty much the entire latter halof the twentieth century.
Of course Mexico is well known for not only its sandy beaches and wormy tequila, but also it organised crime syndicates which obviously benefited hugely off illegal gambling in all forms, including blood sports such as cockfighting and bull fighting. In 2004 the Mexican government finally pulled its head out of the sand where it had been deeply entrenched for a number of decades, and finally relaxed gaming laws. This was done to a large extent to be able to actually govern them. All gambling in Mexico now falls under the control of the Secretaria de Gobernacion, or the Ministry of the Interior. In one month following the relaxing of the laws, the Mexican Secretary of State granted more licenses than had been granted in the past 77 years.
Online gambling of course had not been invented when the original laws came out, and has since been a grey area. That is set to change, with proper regulated licenses being handed out for Mexican Online casinos. Mexican Nationals are however banned from taking part in Mexican Online casinos. Mexico is of course just across from the massive Las Vegas. And of course the big casino cats in that town have turned some very interested eyes towards the sparkly new opportunities presented by the new laws and Mexico’s gorgeous beaches and other tourist attractions. Big Las Vegas style resorts are imminent apparently, which will revitalise the whole experience of casinos in Mexico.
Dubai Palace Casino Cancun
The rather bizarrely named Dubai Palace Casino Cancun is located not in Dubai, but in Cancun, Mexico. Opened in 2010, the Dubai Palace Casino Cancun is a small casino that doesn’t quite reach the stratospheric connotations of its name. It does have 450 slot machines, and a VIP room. There are no live table games, but virtual version of Roulette, Blackjack and Poker are available, as well as NZ online baccarat. It has no restaurant, no hotel, and no other attractions. Live cashiers exchange cash for credits which can be used on the various machines.
Emotion Casino Group
The Emotion Casino Group has a number of small casinos dotted all over Mexico. These little casinos can be found in malls, or near places of interest such as beaches. Very few if any offer live table games, which is the norm in Mexican casinos. There are however always a number of gaming machines that range from slots to video poker to virtual table games such as roulette and Blackjack. None of these casinos have attached hotels or any other attractions other than possibly valet parking.