Mexico City Deputy Alberto Martínez Urincho has presented a draft proposal to strengthen player-safety rules around gambling and sweepstakes and to amend Mexico’s Federal Law on Games and Sweepstakes. The measure is aimed at countering the growth of online betting and its impact on young people.
According to Yogonet, the initiative would add an Article 1 Bis and amend Article 3 of the law. It would formally define gambling addiction as an addictive disorder and impose tighter rules on digital platforms and gambling providers.
The draft would require health and risk warnings, strict identity verification to stop minors accessing gambling platforms, and a ban on misleading advertising and commercial tactics aimed at vulnerable users. It would also explicitly restrict prediction betting on political events, armed conflicts, natural disasters, humanitarian crises, or any other event that could violate human dignity.
Martínez Urincho argued that gambling addiction should be treated as a public-health and mental-health priority. In presenting the proposal, he said it was not simply leisure or entertainment, but a disorder that changes brain circuits and drives compulsive behaviour with physical, psychological and social consequences.
He cited official figures saying 4% to 8% of Mexico’s adolescent population shows problematic or dependent gambling-related behaviour. The proposal also drew on UNAM Global estimates suggesting that up to 3.9 million Mexicans could suffer from gambling addiction, and that affected people may be up to 15 times more likely to die by suicide than the general population.
The wider case for intervention is reinforced by public-health evidence. The WHO says gambling can cause financial stress, relationship breakdown, family violence, mental illness and suicide, and that aggressive promotion in popular and social media increases gambling activity. A 2018 study on gambling disorder in Mexico found that 0.3% of the target population met the criteria, with adolescents at 0.4%, and urged preventive action focused on young people and better monitoring of authorised centres.
Earlier legislative material in the chamber has made similar arguments. A December Gaceta Parlamentaria initiative sought to protect children and adolescents from betting advertising on television and digital platforms, saying there were no effective age checks or clear warnings and that exposure would rise with the FIFA World Cup 2026.
As covered in July, Buenos Aires lawmakers brought forward a separate bill to cap online sessions and require facial checks. In Mexico City, the draft still has to clear the Local Public Administration Commission and the Legislative Plenary, and no vote date has been set.
