Mexico’s gambling regulator has moved to contain a dispute over casino permits after reports linked 20 authorizations to a company allegedly connected to the family of detained former Tabasco security chief Hernán Bermúdez Requena. The Interior Ministry, SEGOB, said the reporting mixed unrelated facts and made clear that no casino is currently operating under the 20 permits granted to Clie S.A. de C.V. by court order.
That response came after fresh scrutiny of Bermúdez Requena, who has been accused of ties to the criminal group La Barredora. The row matters because it touches a sensitive part of Mexico’s gambling system: whether permit decisions are being presented accurately at a time when the sector is already under political and legal pressure.
SEGOB says the 20 permits came from a court order, not a political favor
In its statement, SEGOB said the 20 permits for Clie were issued only because the Metropolitan Regional Chamber of Administrative Justice ordered the ministry to grant them. It also said no establishment has opened under those permits.
That point sits at the center of the government’s defense. The ministry is not denying that the permits were issued. It is saying they were issued under judicial instruction and that the businesses named in the reporting were not operating through them. SEGOB also said the Centenario and Diamante casinos cited in the coverage were tied to a different permit structure and were suspended on April 14.
Luisa Alcalde says the dispute began long before her time at SEGOB
Former interior secretary Luisa María Alcalde also pushed back publicly. She said the company linked to the case had originally received a single permit in 2017, during the government of Enrique Peña Nieto, and that when she arrived at SEGOB there was already an active lawsuit over 20 additional permits requested in 2018. She said the ministry complied with the court ruling but issued the permits with restrictions that excluded slot machines, dice, card, and roulette games.
Alcalde added that those restrictions appear to have reduced the commercial value of the permits and said they have not been used. She also denied having any personal relationship with Bermúdez Requena beyond appearing in an official event photograph.
The dispute now turns on permit structure, not just politics
The real issue is no longer only who is making the accusation. It is whether the permits, suspended casinos, and alleged family ties were part of the same legal chain. SEGOB says they were not, and that is the point it is trying to drive home.
That leaves Mexico’s gambling sector with another messy public fight over permits and oversight. But based on the government’s response so far, the cleaner reading is narrower than the first headlines suggested: the permits exist, they were issued after a court order, and officials say none of the casinos at the center of the row is currently operating under them.
