Online Gambling in Mexico

The only explicitly legal online gambling game in Mexico is the National Lottery.

In 1935, then President Lazaro Cardenas declared gambling illegal. In 1947 another gambling law was enacted but is considered today by many experts as vague.

In 1989, Sports betting was officially approved, but most other gambling endeavors were stalled by debate until after President Vincente Fox took office in 2000.

Despite his campaign promises, Fox failed to either overturn or clarify the limits of the 1947 anti-gambling law, so many interested parties took matters into their own hands. Some defied the law and opened underground gambling parlors, but others took a more defensible route; relying on a court injunction protecting certain constitutional rights.

Many businesses were officially opened featuring video gambling machines. Bingo, raffling, and certain other numbers-based games were approved but regulated by action of the Secretaria de Gobernacion in 2004.

There is still plenty of gray area where the legality of gambling is concerned. Technically, the 1947 still makes gambling illegal, but strict enforcement is so rare as to be effectively non-existent.

About Mexico

Mexico, officially known as the United Mexican States, is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico.

Covering almost 2 million square kilometers (about 760,000 square miles), Mexico is the fifth-largest country in the Americas by total area and the 14th largest independent nation in the world.

With an estimated population of 111 million, Mexico is the 11th most populous country and the most populous Hispanic-speaking country.

Mexico is comprised of 31 states and a Federal District, the capital city (Mexico City).