EXCLUSIVE: When the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Bureau, FinCEN, denounced 10 Mexican casinos for laundering cash from the Sinaloa drug cartel and froze their accounts, all hell broke loose in the country’s gambling industry and caught top international iGaming brands bet365 and Betano in the scandal.
The Mexican government immediately shut the suspected casinos.
But to complicate matters, it also took advantage to hit another casino of the Salinas Group with which it has had a bruising ongoing tax dispute, adding the Ganador Azteca casino to the list from FinCEN.
That’s the accusation revealed to iGamingFuture in an exclusive interview with Miguel Angel Ochoa, President of Mexico’s Gaming Industry Association of Licensees, Operators and Suppliers (AIEJA).
And critically, attested Ochoa, it means that the two leading international betting houses, bet365 and Betano, which operate in Mexico under a Ganador Azteca license, are innocent of any money laundering-by-association smears.
bet365 Betano Clean
Ochoa gave both bet365 and Betano a clean bill of health.
And affirmed: “The Salinas Group casino had nothing to do with the U.S. investigation [into drug cartel money laundering].
“It was a local Mexican dispute between the government and the Salinas group that owed taxes and had refused to pay them.”
The Mexican government is not happy with the Salinas Group, which also owns TV Azteca, the country’s second-largest television network and persistent critic of President Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration.
The government took “the opportunity to hit the Salina Group as well on the day FinCen announced the money laundering accusations against the Sinaloa Cartel”, claimed Ochoa.
“But [the Salina Group] is a separate case. I don’t believe they are laundering money, and I hope they can reopen soon,” added the gaming industry leader.
Albanian Connection
According to FinCEN, the 10 casinos it targeted for money laundering, located mostly in northern Mexico in the states of Sonora, Sinaloa, Baja California and Tabasco, are owned and run by an Albanian family called Hysa.
The Hysa business interests centre on casino operations and they are now accused of facilitating the laundering of capital originating from organized crime, specifically the Sinaloa Cartel and other international criminal groups.
The family of five brothers are led by Luftar Hysa, who resides in Canada but has Mexican nationality.
He arrived in Mexico in 2004, when the casino and online betting opened up, and has been suspected of shady deals and transfers of millions of dollars to Malta, Rumania, Switzerland, the European Union and the United States using their network of casinos and other businesses in real estate and tourism.
The Hysa brothers, Luftar, Arben, Ramiz, Fatos and Fabjon, have repeatedly denied having ties to organized crime.
The U.S. Treasury Sanctions List names 27 individuals, among them Eselda Baku, a daughter of Ramiz Hysa.
She holds Albanian citizenship but lives in Mexico and sits on the board of the key company in the family organization Entretenimiento Palmero S.A.
The Treasury announced that all Hysa family assets in the United States–or that pass through U.S. financial systems–are frozen and cannot be used without OFAC approval.
Tarnished Reputation
U.S. individuals or entities may not conduct business with them without a licence.
Furthermore, warned the U.S. Treasury, all financial institutions, whether American or international, that rely on the U.S. financial system must exercise “extreme caution” and “avoid cooperating” with any Hysa financial entity or entities of which the family have a controlling interest.
The gaming sector in Mexico has faced turbulent weeks since the U.S. government accused 10 casinos operated by the Albanian Hysa family of laundering money for the Sinaloa Cartel and sending millions of dollars to Europe, Canada, Malta and the United States.
And the crisis situation has been worsened by an increase in gaming taxes, which has complicated the outlook for both iGaming and land-based casinos.
AIEJA’s Ochoa said the Sinaloa mafia has tarnished the reputation of the Mexican gambling industry and its licensed operators. And he called for the toughest possible punishment for the family if they are convicted of money laundering.
The laundering scandal has rocked the gaming sector in Mexico which was already under the gun due to a major hike in taxation on its GGR decided by Sheinbaum’s government and already approved by Congress.
Tax Blow
“In a matter of months, our entire industry in Mexico was turned upside down,” Ochoa told me.
“First, arbitrary taxes were introduced in the state of Sonora. Then the federal tax on GGR was raised from 30 percent to 50 percent. Then came the money-laundering accusation.”
When the Mexican government suddenly announced that 13 casinos would be shut down on November 13, it did not say which they were, where they were or when they would be shut.
It was the U.S. government who clarified the information and identified 10 specific casinos, Ochoa added.
Regrettably for bet365 and Betano, the money laundering scandal looks set to run and run.
This week a federal judge granted an injunction ordering Mexico’s Interior Ministry (Segob) to lift the suspension against the physical and online casinos owned by Grupo Salinas.
But President Sheinbaum has already announced that her government will appeal the ruling.
For the moment it seems that bet365 Stoke-on-Trent’s finest is caught in a Mexican Stand-off.
Watch this space!
