Mexico raises alarm over 900,000 teenagers gambling
The growth of online gambling among Mexican teenagers returned to the center of political debate after Congresswoman Sughey Torres Rodríguez, from the PRI, called for an urgent discussion on the regulatory gaps that allow minors access to digital gaming platforms. The legislator described the phenomenon as a new silent addiction, with visible consequences on the mental health of children and adolescents.
The data supporting the alert comes from the 2025 National Survey on Drug, Alcohol, and Tobacco Consumption. According to this survey, almost seven out of every hundred Mexican adolescents between 12 and 17 years old participate in gambling activities, a proportion that translates into more than 900,000 minors involved nationwide. The figure presented the country with a reality that is growing faster than its control mechanisms.
Torres warned that a significant portion of these young people already show signs associated with problem gambling. Anxiety, a compulsive need to bet, loss of control, hiding expenses, family conflicts, and depressive episodes are frequently mentioned by specialists as symptoms in those who started gambling as teenagers. The developing adolescent brain is identified as particularly vulnerable to immediate reward stimuli.
The questioning points to the very design of the platforms. Welcome bonuses, aggressive promotions, and immediate reward schemes, combined with massive advertising on social media, create an experience designed to sustain constant participation. In this context, current age filters are insufficient, as minors access through borrowed accounts, digital wallets, or third-party data, circumventing the formal controls that the market claims to have in place.
The congresswoman's proposal does not aim to prohibit, but rather to recognize that the development of the digital market has advanced faster than legislation. The current framework in Mexico combines the Federal Law on Games and Lotteries, from 1947, with subsequent administrative provisions, a mosaic that does not precisely contemplate the dynamics of online sportsbooks or the specific risks of early exposure of minors. This regulatory gap is what the legislator is asking to update.
For the Mexican iGaming industry, the discussion is delicate. Operators and associations have been asking for years for a modernization of the framework that provides legal certainty, but the public debate is increasingly focused on social risks and the protection of minors. An eventual reform must balance formal authorization, taxation, and reinforced obligations for responsible gambling, identity verification, and advertising limits.
The Mexican case reflects a tension that runs through much of Latin America. Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, and Chile are undergoing, with varying degrees of progress, similar debates on advertising, access for minors, and problem gambling prevention. In emerging markets where online gambling penetration is growing at double-digit rates, political pressure to close the gap between technology and regulation will set the agenda for the coming months and force the industry to anticipate with effective self-regulation if it does not want to face reforms written with a restrictive tone.
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