Marathon Tocar Madera

Marathon Tocar Madera, LP

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Marathon Tocar Madera, LP (MTM) is a partnership which holds an equity interest in a gaming center in Aguascalientes, Mexico called Palace. Aguascalientes’ Palace is located in the center of the city in San Marcos Square (also known as Expo Plaza) and operates over 200 bingo-based slot machines, a ten-seat bingo-based roulette machine, a sports book betting center and a traditional “paper” bingo room with seating for over 300 players.

Separately, Marathon Capital Holdings, Inc. owns an equity interest in the Palace in Torreón. Torreón’s Palace is located in downtown Torreón and features over 200 bingo-based slot machines, a ten-seat bingo-based roulette machine, and a sports book betting center.

Traditional casino gambling has been illegal in Mexico since 1934. Article 2 of Mexico’s 1947 Federal Gaming and Raffles Law made certain exceptions to the 1934 law, allowing board games, dominos, dice, raffles, bingo and betting

.. .on most sporting events. Consequently, these wagering activities have been legal since 1934 so long as an operator has the requisite permits from the Secretariat of Government. Article 2 concludes, however, that: “The games not listed will be deemed as prohibited for legal purposes of this Law.”

Almost 60 years after the Law was promulgated, the Mexican government published a Regulation for the Federal Gaming and Raffles Law on September 17, 2004 which provided a loophole allowing the use of bingo-based slot machines by properly licensed operators. Specifically, Article 9 of the Regulation states: “Slot machines, in any of their models, will not be subject to authorization.”

Currently there are over 200 legal establishments in Mexico that offer some form of bingo-based slot machines. The country, however, remains extremely under-penetrated with slots-based entertainment relative to other parts of the world where similar gaming is legal.

MCH is currently evaluating additional investments in the Mexican gaming market as well as opportunities in Louisiana’s truck stop mini-casino market.