US Spends $2 Million to Fight Corruption in Mexican Sports Betting

As Americans grapple with high inflation, rising unemployment and the staggering costs of an unprecedented illegal immigration crisis, the Biden administration is spending $2 million to combat corruption in Mexico’s sports betting industry. That includes “crimes” such as match-fixing, betting and bookmaking, and illegal and legal gambling. The goal, according to a State Department grant announcement, is to disrupt the laundering of illicit proceeds by Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) while “undermining the integrity of sports at all levels.” Sports betting is a vehicle for predatory betting, addiction, predatory lending and match-fixing, according to the agency’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), which is doling out the money to tackle the problem.

The U.S. government has long identified Mexican TCOs (drug cartels) as the nation’s greatest criminal threat, smuggling deadly illicit fentanyl en masse into communities across the country. Nine Mexican TCOs have the greatest impact on the U.S. drug trade, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). They include the Sinaloa and Juárez cartels, Los Zetas, La Familia Michoacána, Los Rojos and Guerreros Unidos. The TCOs maintain drug distribution cells in U.S. cities that report to leaders in Mexico and dominate the country’s drug market. At a congressional Homeland Security hearing last year, several federal counterterrorism, intelligence and drug enforcement officials testified that Mexican TCOs have taken unprecedented control of the southwest border. This suggests that securing the border would severely impact the TCOs’ primary source of revenue: drug trafficking, not sports betting.

The State Department acknowledges this in its Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs Mexico Summary, which says that Mexican TCOs pose a serious threat to national security and exacerbate the U.S. drug epidemic by smuggling heroin, fentanyl and methamphetamine, as well as cocaine from Colombia into the country. The criminal enterprises also profit from fuel theft, human smuggling, extortion and kidnapping, the agency writes, adding that addressing the threats requires a reduction in drug cultivation and production, as well as secured borders and ports and an increase in drug interdictions. “INL strengthens our shared security by providing training and equipment to Mexican agencies to disrupt the movement of weapons, money and drugs,” the State Department’s Mexico summary says, adding that “INL assistance enhances U.S.-Mexico coordination against transnational threats.”

Sports betting doesn’t appear in any of the government’s TCO threat assessments of Mexico, but U.S. taxpayers will shell out $2 million for the dubious project aimed at rounding up analysts, investigators and prosecutors from state and federal units in Mexico’s notoriously corrupt government to investigate and prosecute financial crimes and corruption involving sports. “This may include, but is not limited to, transnational investigations into sports corruption, evidence collection and evaluation, monitoring and analysis of betting, match-fixing, theft of funds, embezzlement, etc.,” the grant announcement reads. The U.S. will also fund the creation of a public media campaign on sports corruption and illegal sports betting, gambling and match-fixing, as well as a means of reporting the crimes to the relevant authorities in the impoverished Latin American country. “Major sporting events, including but not limited to the 2026 FIFA World Cup, co-hosted by the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, are likely to be exploited by TCOs to increase their illicit profits,” the State Department wrote in an attempt to justify its designation. “Law enforcement in Mexico needs robust, rigorous, and independent training on how to combat corruption within the sports and legal/illegal sports betting markets.”

It is worth noting that U.S. and Mexican nonprofits and educational institutions applying for a portion of the grant must include a gender, equity, and inclusion analysis that addresses the ways in which women, gender-diverse individuals, and members of other marginalized and underrepresented groups may be impacted by the work. This includes consideration of their safe and meaningful participation. Finally, to increase the likelihood of receiving the award for combating corruption in Mexican sports betting, nonprofits are asked to describe how they will minimize inequities.