Mexico Shuts Down 13 Casinos in Money Laundering Crackdown

Mexico City — The Mexican Secretariat of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP) has identified thirteen casinos where million-dollar cash operations, international fund flows, and the use of unsupervised digital platforms were detected. In a statement, the SHCP, in conjunction with the Security Cabinet and as part of an investigation developed over several months, stated that it "identified conduct allegedly consistent with international money laundering typologies" in establishments with a presence in the states of Jalisco, Nuevo León, Sinaloa, Sonora, Baja California, Estado de México, Chiapas, and Mexico City, according to patterns detected in the financial analysis.

The Secretariat explained that due to their "high financial risk, they were listed as blocked legal entities" to protect users and prevent these spaces from being used by organized crime.

"The Secretariat of Finance reinforces institutional actions to prevent money laundering through the use of casinos by alleged organized crime groups," the agency stated in a social media post.

The report noted that some of these establishments "operated with million-dollar cash movements," and transfers to countries such as the United States, Romania, Albania, Malta, and Panama, as well as through digital platforms, "which facilitated the dispersion of illicit resources, their concealment, and their reinsertion into the Mexican and international financial system."

The investigation also identified that the digital platforms "used people with economic profiles inconsistent with the amount of money received," such as homemakers, students, retirees, and the unemployed, "who, in exchange for a percentage, transferred the entirety of the funds to the true owners, thereby legitimizing the income apparently obtained from games."

As a result of these findings, Mexico's Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) will file the corresponding complaints with the Attorney General's Office of the Republic (FGR) and will notify the Federal Tax Attorney's Office. This is with the objective of pursuing possible crimes of operations with resources of illicit origin (money laundering), criminal association, and crimes of a fiscal nature.

The SHCP stated that these actions reaffirm the commitment to international cooperation to prevent the use of the financial system for illicit purposes, in collaboration with FinCEN and OFAC of the United States Department of the Treasury, and in compliance with the recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) for combating money laundering.

They also ratify the Mexican government's commitment to strengthen inter-institutional coordination, prevent criminal infiltration in vulnerable sectors, and consolidate joint actions with security and justice authorities to prevent casinos and betting platforms from being used by alleged organized crime groups, as well as to protect users and the general population.