Mexico Hits Back Over Cartel-Linked Casino Licences Reports

Mexico casino licences have become the flashpoint in a sharp public dispute between the country’s gambling regulator and one of its most prominent newspapers. At the centre of it all sits a company linked to a detained former security official. Prosecutors accuse him of running a criminal organisation with ties to one of Mexico’s most notorious cartels.

The allegations were serious. A front-page report claimed that 20 casino permits had gone to a company connected to Hernán Bermúdez Requena, formerly the Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection for the state of Tabasco. He is currently detained and facing criminal charges. Prosecutors allege he led La Barredora, an operational arm of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

What the Report Claimed

The newspaper report cited an investigation by Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity (MCCI), a non-profit that monitors corruption across Mexico’s public and private sectors. Based on that investigation, the story claimed that Compañía Operadora Clíe had received 20 casino licences. It placed those approvals in the final year of former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s government.

The story landed hard. A cartel-connected figure holding 20 casino licences would point to a serious failure of regulatory oversight. But both the regulator and the trade body moved quickly to challenge that framing.

SEGOB Pushes Back with a Court Order Explanation

Mexico’s national gambling regulator, SEGOB, issued a formal statement rejecting the report’s conclusions. It confirmed the licences exist. However, it said no discretionary regulatory decision produced them. Instead, the Metropolitan Regional Chamber of Administrative Justice ordered their issuance following a lawsuit.

The backstory matters here. Clie SA de CV had sued SEGOB after the regulator repeatedly denied the company’s permit applications from 2018 onward. A court eventually ruled in Clie’s favour, and SEGOB had to comply. But the regulator applied restrictions that the ruling outlined. The licences excluded slot machines, card games, dice, and roulette. Also, none of the 20 casinos had begun operations at the time of the report.

SEGOB also disputed another key claim. The 20 Mexico casino licences operated under permits assigned to separate entities, not to Clie SA de CV directly. That detail directly contradicted what the newspaper had reported.

Separately, SEGOB confirmed it had already suspended licences for two physical venues, Centenario and Diamante, along with the site CrownCityBets.

Former SEGOB Chief Denies Any Connection

Luisa María Alcalde, who headed SEGOB between 2023 and 2024, also went public with her own rebuttal. She said Clie received just one licence in 2017, under the government of Enrique Peña Nieto, long before she took office. She described the lawsuit and the court-ordered licences as a legal process SEGOB had no power to block.

Alcalde was equally direct about the personal dimension. A photograph had circulated online showing her alongside Bermúdez Requena at a public event. She explained the image came from a gathering where virtually all state security secretaries attended, and that she had no prior relationship with him.

“I had never seen this Requena character in my life,” she said in a video posted to social media. “In all the positions I have held, I have never committed a single act of corruption or dishonesty.”

The Industry Weighs In

AIEJA, the Association of Licence Holders, Operators and Suppliers of the Entertainment and Gaming Industry in Mexico, also added its voice to the pushback. The trade body expressed support for SEGOB’s position and called for reporting on the sector to stay grounded in documented facts.

In its public statement, AIEJA called for “responsible and accurate public discourse” on industry matters. It stressed that inaccurate coverage damages legal certainty in a sector that operates under formal regulation and ongoing supervision. The body stopped short of a direct accusation, but the message was clear.

A Dispute That Goes Beyond One Story

This row touches several fault lines in Mexican public life at once. It brings together organised crime, judicial independence, political accountability, and the conduct of the press. The newspaper has faced previous accusations of political bias, while the officials defending themselves carry associations with the outgoing López Obrador administration.

What SEGOB’s response does establish is that the Mexico casino licences issued to Clie did not come through backroom deals. A court ordered them. The regulator complied and applied restrictions. Operations never launched. Whether that distinction satisfies critics will likely depend on where they stood before the story broke.