Following the decision by the Hermosillo Town Council to temporarily suspend licences for the installation of gaming rooms, the Governor of the State of Sonora in the north of Mexico has commended the positive action. Eduardo Bours Castelo said that it is an issue that should concern everyone and that, if he were asked, he would close down the gambling rooms.

“It seems to me that the state should have much more to say on these questions, and I’m very concerned about what is happening to us with these machines and gambling games. They said they are games of skill because, according to them, to win you need skill; but now I believe they are making fools of us, it’s a trick.”

The opening of ‘casinos’ throughout Mexico is still somewhat of a grey area legally. Betting shops and electronic bingo operations, often called Yaks, are popular and mainly licensed but some of the gambling venues are basically slot machine halls with no regulation under Mexican law. The country’s Lottery and Gaming Act dates from 1947 and has long been in need of revision and updating.

In his weekly scheduled press conference Bours Castelo indicated that although the state has little input into such questions, he has always opposed the installation of this type of gambling operation. The evident adverse social impact was, in his opinion, sufficient reason to seek a way in which to stop the proliferation of gaming establishments in Sonora. (E-12.06.07)

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