Mexican operators call for regulatory overhaul ahead of FIFA World Cup 26
Mexican online gambling regulators have urged the country’s government to overhaul archaic gambling laws in time for a boom in gambling activity during next year’s football World Cup.
The tournament will be jointly hosted by 16 cities in North America, with the US as the main host alongside Canada and Mexico. It will be the first time it has been hosted by three nations.
Earlier this month, AIEJA, Mexico’s Association of Permit Holders, Operators and Suppliers of the Entertainment and Gambling Industry, urged the government of Mexico to update the country’s Federal Gaming and Lottery Law of 1947.
Speaking at SBC Summit in Lisbon on Tuesday, Codere Chief Executive Aviv Sher said, “All eyes are on the World Cup next year. This is the next jump [in] industry GGR, and especially in Mexico which hosts the World Cup, we will see the next jump in GGR next year.”
Betcris Chairman JD Duarte agreed. “It’s probably the worst time for an overregulation scenario to happen. At least in my experience, every World Cup is like one year packed into one month of activity,” he said.
“If we don’t have the proper conditions to do business the right way when the World Cup comes, and Mexico being one of the hosting countries, all that growth is going to go to the wrong place.”
This opinion was shared by Winpot Chief Executive Yono Sidi, who suggested that the regulators form an “advisory board” of operators to guide the development of modern regulation in the country and “help them enforce it in the correct manner.”
Addressing the panel moderator AIEJA President Dr Miguel Ángel Ochea Sánchez, Duarte called on the trade body to facilitate a dialogue between operators and regulators, to create a viable regulatory framework.
He said operators wanted to “try to share our knowledge and help them design something that actually works for the benefit of the people of the industry and not something that is going to actually backfire”.
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