Mexico has moved a step nearer to taxing violent video video games after the Chamber of Deputies authorized one such levy as a part of a broader fiscal bundle. The legislative proposal now heads to the Senate, elevating the potential for larger costs and elevated regulatory scrutiny in one in every of Latin America’s biggest gaming markets.
A 2025 report by Human Rights Watch states that Mexico continues to expertise “extraordinarily excessive charges” of murder and different violent crimes. The development peaked in 2022, when six Mexican cities recorded murder charges exceeding 100 per 100,000 residents. Nationally, the murder price has declined barely in recent times and presently stands at round 25 per 100,000. Nevertheless, a rise in reported disappearances throughout the identical interval means that the true price of homicides might not have modified considerably, if in any respect. A lot of the nation’s violence has been linked to drug cartels, which have confirmed tough for the federal government to crack down on through the years.
Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies Approves 8% Tax on Violent Video Video games
Whereas the online game trade’s connection to real-life violence is way more doubtful, it makes for a better legislative goal. It has now discovered itself within the crosshairs of the Mexican parliament, whose decrease home—the Chamber of Deputies—voted to approve an 8% levy on violent video video games on October 17. The measure was bundled into Mexico’s 2026 Economic Package proposal, offered as a part of “well being taxes,” which additionally embody larger levies on sugary drinks, tobacco, and playing.
Mexico’s New Tax Proposal Additionally Concentrating on Different Kinds of Video Video games
The proposal can extra precisely be described as a mature video game tax, because it would not simply goal violent titles however any with the C (18+) and D (adult-only) scores outlined by the Mexican System of Equivalences of Video Sport Content material Classification. The primary draft of the legislation was initially launched on September 14, with a finances presentation from the Treasury Division claiming “current research have discovered a relationship between the usage of violent video video games and better ranges of aggression amongst adolescents, in addition to unfavorable social and psychological results similar to isolation and nervousness.” No concrete research have been cited within the presentation.
What’s Subsequent for Mexico’s 2026 Financial Bundle Proposal
The proposal now heads to the Senate, the place it’s anticipated to be mentioned within the coming weeks. The Congress of the Union has a November 15 deadline for deciding whether or not to enact the laws. The present draft is not clear on whether or not the levy would apply to each bodily and digital gross sales, and the place it stands on issues like subscriptions, DLC, and different varieties of microtransactions. Ought to the overall proposal be accepted, the Senate’s model of the legislation is more likely to make clear these questions.
The violent video game tax could be stacked on high of Mexico’s current VAT, which has been sitting at 16% since 2010. The Treasury Division mentioned the reasoning behind the measure was to boost sources for serving to folks affected by unfavorable social and psychological results that it blames on video video games.
Sources: Human Rights Watch, Insider Gaming
