Even though only the United States separates the countries of Mexico and Canada, there is a world of difference in the current state of gambling affairs.

Mexico

There are relatively few countries anymore where gambling, outside of pari mutuel betting, is illegal. China is one and Mexico is another. Akin to China, Mexico is engaged in an unwinnable battle with the illegal gambling trade. The legalization of casino gambling in Mexico has been a legislative bugaboo for the last few years. The arguments, according to most sources, continue to find their way to the back political burner.

As much as there are arguments opposing the legalization of casino gambling in Mexico, there are just as many in support. Those who support the legalization point to the outrageous costs incurred by law enforcement in tracking down and prosecuting illegal gambling businesses, which have subsidized a significant organized crime business. When casino gambling is legalized, there will be a sudden downturn in illegal activity, supporters argue, and the government can work to keep revenues local within the communities that need them the most.

Government officials who are pro-gambling look to the potential for foreign investment so desperately needed within Mexico. Commercial casinos, they argue, provide a number of critical components from which Mexicans could benefit. Large commercial resort casinos, the kind they would like to see built, employ hundreds, even thousands, of local workers. At the same time, these types of high-traffic gambling venues can drive up the local tourist industry which offers an advantageous trickle-down effect for local business and citizens.

Canada

The country at the opposite end of the North American continent enjoys a gambling landscape which is nearly the opposite of Mexico’s. At the end of the nineteenth century, Canada forbade all gambling, except for horse racing. The country was simply following the lead of most European countries and even the sentiments of the Americans at the time.

In 1969, though, close on the heels of New Hampshire, the first state in modern America to legalize a lottery, Canada legalized the lottery, too. Canadian territories were made responsible first for their own lotteries, and then other forms of gambling, such as casino games, slot machines and video lottery terminals. Not all territories sanction the same array of gambling forms, or even all of them.

Canada has been one of the first to legalize video lottery terminals which have become the newest gambling controversy. Worldwide critics claim the omnipresence of video lottery terminals is turning frequent gamblers into addictive and compulsive gamblers.