Mexico Gambling Bill Would End Haven For US Online Poker Refugees
December 5, 2014 6:04 pmThe Mexican Parliament will decide next week whether to pass the country’s Gambling and Gaming Bill, a new piece of legislation which seeks to introduce sweeping changes to Mexico’s live and online gambling industry. However, the bills biggest impact would be on Mexico’s online poker market, which would subsequently be ring-fenced and segregated from the international arena.
Furthermore, any operators wanting to offer their products in Mexico will be required to have their servers inside the country, with all online players then filtered via a “dot.com.mx” portal. Meanwhile, offshore gambling sites will have their ISPs blocked inside Mexico. This prospect naturally has unnerved US online players who have made Mexico a base for their poker careers following Black-Friday, and the 2011 online poker clampdown in the US.
Mexico is a large country of 122 million people, and the Mexican governments move is seen as a means of generating significant earnings from the country’s online gambling industry, with a Marketer.com piece of research suggesting by 2018 Mexico could have as many as 18 million people gambling online. Mobile gaming represents a particularly attractive opportunity for operators, and as Cristina Romero from law firm Loyra Abogados, said:
“Mobile gaming and social gaming are the biggest things around at the moment, as some people do not have a computer at home but certainly have a smartphone and almost everybody is using one or more social networks.”
Naturally, news of next week’s potential game changer for US online poker grinders has sparked much debate on the TwoPlusTwo forums, with one Mexican poster called mos_shark suggesting the country may have been better off opening its market to international players, as well. As he goes on to explain:
“Simply judging by the amount of actual Mexican players I see in the tournament/sit and go lobbies, I don’t think we have a big enough player pool to sustain a healthy poker economy. 80% of the population is basically poor.. excess “gambling” money [isn’t there]. Mexican pros and U. S. players playing on Mexican soil should be monitoring this closely.”