Long before the offer from the National Council of Trade and Tourism (CNET) to pay for the study by the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM), opponents of Mexico’s new gaming legislation had proposed such a study by the university. As the opposition lobbies had the momentum going their way, no one was prepared to dip into their pockets to pay for such work, and the anti casino campaign continued with its usual ‘social ills’ routine, always holding the moral high ground.

When the House of Representatives Tourist Commission granted a 90-day term for public and private studies pro or anti casinos to be submitted, the anti casino lobby proposed UNAM as the ultimate academic word on the social and economic effects of casinos in Mexico. With dozens of studies on the table, and the inaction of the lobby anti casino to commission the UNAM study, the legislators asked the academic body for a quotation.

When the price hit the fan, the representatives decided that at over US$363,000 the study would just go over ground already covered by the myriad studies in hand, and refused to pay. At this point, CNET offered to pay for the UNAM study in a studied move to delay revision of the gaming law by the Mexican Congress’s Lower House, as the proposal sets an October date for completion.

On March 10, CENT sent a formal letter to the president of the Multi Party Coordinating Group in the House of Representatives, señor Jose Gonzalez Morfin, indicating that they would be prepared to finance the UNAM study from the private sector in view of their desire to help in any way with the work by the group. There have been several reports about CNET’s opposition to updating the obsolete Mexican gaming legislation, and there are academics within UNAM who also have a vitriolic attitude to casinos.

As the Mexican legislators come to the conclusion that illegal gaming in Mexico is a billion dollar economic informal sector, CNET has decided to play their final card with claims to cooperate through the study by UNAM. Indeed it would be a good piece, and with possibly favourable conclusions for the much needed updating of Mexican Gaming legislation, but any more studies - and surely the Mexican parliament might sink under the weight of such volumes - most of the time serve the purpose of those who pay for them.

No one in their right mind would object to valuable independent work by academics, especially one by UNAM as presented by CNET, but they have had more than eight years to commission such a study since the gaming legislation started to be mooted by responsible politicians, and more than two years since the Federal Gaming, Betting and Lotteries Law became an item in the Mexican legislature, in response to the proliferation of illegal gambling in the country and the advent of new technology in the industry.

With the current parliamentary session ending in April, and the next one as the last session before politicians get down to general election issues and work, CNET’s rushed proposal would send the gaming law hurtling towards 2006 and beyond. Illegal gaming in Mexico has been making use of lobbies to derail any attempt to update the law and the installation of casinos, which is one of the highest regulated sectors in the world. Anyone, especially those who claim the moral high ground, who opposes change to the current gaming legislation in Mexico, on any grounds whatever, is on the side of the billion dollar illegal gambling industry, which contributes nothing to the country. (E-03.23.04)

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