SALEM-NEWS
Corruption of politicians and judges has emerged as an issue connected to the gambling boom.
As Mexico’s Proceso magazine noted on August 27: “It might be said that the terrorist attack on the Casino Royale of Monterrey was more than announced. Opposition voices warned that the casinos were a danger: together with them, they pointed out, mafia-like structures developed that exploit white slavery, drug trafficking, money laundering and violence…”
Although the Mexican Congress has balked repeatedly at approving Las Vegas-style gaming, casinos and other gaming establishments have nonetheless spread like wildfire across the country in recent years. The Mexican newsweekly Proceso has reported that the number of gaming enterprises-legal and illegal-exploded from 123 in 2000 to at least 790 in 2011. An estimated 12,000 people work in the industry.
In the violence-torn border state of Nuevo Leon, the number of gambling joints jumped more than ten times in the last 11 years, increasing from only 5 to 57 businesses. The expansion began under the Fox administration, when former Interior Minister Santiago Creel issued new permits before leaving office in 2005 to engage in an unsuccessful bid for the presidency, and continued into the Calderon administration.
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