Mexico’s & Puerto Vallarta’s Casinos in trouble
After the fire attack of Casino Royale in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, which killed 52 people, city councils of the Guadalajara metropolitan area, fearing such a contingency, took only three days to close six of the 25 casinos in the city. Among those closed are the Capri, the GDL, Yak, Twin Lions and Grand Nevada.
Mayor Jorge Sandoval Aristotles said August 29 that business activities will resume only when the Interior Ministry determines if they have federal permission and Civil Protection permits in order.
GDL Casino, whose facilities do not have emergency exits and the gas pipeline has deficiencies. On Twin Lions Casino, the business lacks fire hydrants and emergency exits; the Gran Nevada Casino’s smoke detectors are not connected to a control panel, the available space is small and the traffic is affected in the surrounding area; As for the Yak Casino, the owners do not have a emergency power plant.
No more casinos in Zapopan
In Zapopan, Mayor Hector Vielma told the media on 30 August that no more casinos will be authorized during his administration: “For me a casino is the worst thinng that can happen to this country.”
Ana Patricia Godinez Luna, Director General of Inspection and regulations in Zapopan, says the city has 11 casinos that are mostly in malls. Of these, she says, six were opened during the administration of Juan Sanchez Aldana PAN: four began in March 2009 and two on the following December 17th. Vielma administration has authorized one, the Majestic, in Millennium Mall. During last weekends’ activities they closed the 777 Casino because, the interviewee says, “they did not guarantee safety measures, fire-hydrants and electrical systems were improperly installed”.
The Puerto Vallarta casinos are three. The promoters are a group of local businessmen led by Fernando Gonzalez Corona, who already was the local mayor and the PAN party. In Chapala, on the Cerro Viejo, Lake Chapala they are building “Lake Chapala Hotel and Casino Resort”, by Palacio Development Group from Phoenix, Arizona, with a 40 million dollar investment. The establishment is part of a real estate project that includes building a hotel and housing in San Antonio Tlayacapan.
According to documents obtained by this weekly, the legal representative from that business is Fernando Aguilera Delgado.
Casino’s mushrooming all over the place
According to the Interior Ministry, available on its Web site on gaming site, ‘Atracciones y Emociones Vallarta, S.A. de C.V., which initially was located as a licensee of Monterrey Casino Royale which they denied in a statement on August 26, also have in their federal registration a number of casinos in Jalisco. With the initial permit (4117) from June 1992, they were authorized to establish a racetrack, four remote betting centers and 46 remote betting with drawing room numbers throughout the country.
Its shareholders are Rodrigo Aguirre Vizuete, son of Ramon Aguirre Velazquez ex-regent in Mexico City, and VH Entertainment, Inc. today only operate 26 of these remote betting centers and drawing room with permits that expire in 1 June 2017. Atracciones y Emociones Vallarta, whose owners claim to have legal “amparo” protection, has permissions in Gudalajara for the Alegre Casino and Sao Paulo Casino, and they also operate casinos in Puerto Vallarta , Ajijic, and the Royal City, inside the mall Plaza San Javier, in Arandas.
On a tour of the various casinos, workers admit that following the attack on the casino Monterrey, hysteria broke out in Jalisco’s metropolitan municipalities. Some complain of low wages and grueling working hours, and the lack of equipment.
Municipal employees polled state that inspections are minimal. “In Jalisco, says one of them, there are no more than 10 inspectors in charge of monitoring horse races, cockfighting, lotteries and certification of premises.”