The loot of the machines: this is how crime launders money and creates addicts
The figures are brutal. In just one year, the Secretary of the Navy (Semar) multiplied its seizures of slot machines by more than five. It went from 309 in 2024 to 1,629 in 2025. A jump of 427% that is no coincidence.
This is not a game. It is the new battle front.
A perfect exploitation system
Behind every machine there is a perverse equation. According to anonymous workers who spoke with EL UNIVERSAL, each device accumulates almost 3 thousand pesos a day. Per year, that becomes about a million pesos per machine. Cash, constant and hard.
“Each group has its area, because it is its business. They have people in charge of providing the machines to the little stores, it is a very well planned system,” say the tenants.
The business map is clear. Seven states concentrate the seizures, with Sinaloa in the lead (1,268 machines). They are followed by Michoacán, Nayarit and Sonora. CJNG cells such as ‘Los Blancos de Troya’ and groups such as Los Templarios operate in Michoacán.
The most worrying thing: it is a business designed to fail. Literally.
Felipe Gaytán Alcalá, sociologist from La Salle, explains it bluntly:
“Human beings have a basic principle: we seek maximum gratification at the lowest cost… The individual thinks, who is going to give me money without working? When you start playing, you may win once or twice, but apparently”
It’s the perfect trap. They create addiction while laundering money.
The inexhaustible replenishment
Here is the real operational drama. The cartels have a supply chain that seems infinite.
“Despite the seizures, the criminals replace the slot machines with new ones, from China, that arrive at the Lázaro Cárdenas port”
While the Navy carries out operations like the one on March 11 in Michoacán (93 machines) or in Nayarit (37 machines), new units are already arriving by ship. It’s like trying to empty the sea with a glass.
Rubén Ortega Montes, security specialist, sees it clearly: these machines are the new ‘floor charge’. But instead of just extorting money from the trader, they exploit human psychology to generate recurring income.
Worse still: they are a gateway. Ortega points out that cigarettes and vapes managed by the same cells are sold around these machines.
The true human cost
In the end, this is not just about statistics or seizures. It is about the threatened shopkeeper who requests anonymity out of fear. From the person who inserts that first coin thinking of making ‘easy money’ and ends up losing theirs.
Gaytán sums it up crudely:
“There are individuals who manage to win money and want to continue playing because they think they will continue winning more”
Organized crime found a gold mine low in risk and high in return. Meanwhile, the Navy fights a battle whose numbers grow exponentially every year.
The uncomfortable question remains: are we gaining ground or simply documenting an epidemic?
