SHCP - UIF Communication

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Av. Constituyentes 1001, Col. Belén de las Flores, Alc. Álvaro Obregón, Ciudad de México Tel: (55) 0000 0000. www.gob.mx/uif Communication No. 54 Mexico City, November 11, 2025

The Secretariat of Finance strengthens institutional actions to prevent money laundering through the use of casinos by alleged organized crime groups

The Secretariat of Finance and Public Credit, together with the Security Cabinet, in an investigation that has been ongoing for months, identified 13 casinos where cash operations, international flows, and the use of unregulated digital platforms were detected.

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.

As a result, behaviors presumably consistent with international money laundering typologies were identified in establishments present in Jalisco, Nuevo León, Sinaloa, Sonora, Baja California, State of Mexico, Chiapas, and Mexico City, according to the patterns detected in the financial analysis.

Some of these establishments operated with million-dollar cash movements, 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.

Additionally, it was identified that the digital platforms used individuals with economic profiles not commensurate with the amount of money received, such as housewives, students, retirees, and unemployed persons, who in exchange for a percentage transferred the entire funds to the true owners, legitimizing the income apparently obtained in games.

As a result of these findings, the Financial Intelligence Unit will file the corresponding complaints with the Attorney General's Office of the Republic (FGR) and notify the Federal Tax Administration, in order to follow up on possible crimes of operations with resources of illicit origin (money laundering), criminal association, and fiscal offenses.

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 US Department of the Treasury, and in compliance with the Recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) for the fight against money laundering.

With this, the Secretariat of Finance ratifies the commitment of the Government of Mexico to strengthen inter-institutional coordination, prevent criminal infiltration in vulnerable sectors, and consolidate joint actions with security and law enforcement authorities to prevent casinos and betting platforms from being used by alleged organized crime groups, as well as to protect users and the population.

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