Mexico forbids the majority of types of gambling, yet in Tijuana you can find a minicasino full of slot machines. Clients sit and drink and smoke, and play the slot machines, and have been for several months now. It draws a nice crowd, both locals and tourists, and it isn’t the first. One by one, these minicasinos have been popping up here and everywhere.  

The casinos are able to operate their slot machines because they are just under the radar. The casinos take care not to break the word of the law, which says that gambling is restricted to sports betting and dominoes. Poker and Blackjack, and other games such as those are illegal, but many of these casinos don’t offer them. In the past two years, Mexico has been inundated with a group of minicasinos that are full of the slot machines. The law passed in 1947 could never have known that slot machines were the way of the future, and so they are not included in the law – and hence they are basically legal. 

The machines seem like real slot machines – they look and sound like them, but they are more like bingo than anything. Mexico is trying to decide what to do, but without a clear cut solution any time in the future, the slot machines will keep running. Many think that the slot machines are here to stay.

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