The casinos have yet to make it to Mexico, although the federal legislature has been debating the issue for some years.

Everybody assumes it’s just a matter of time before 'Las Vegas style' casinos are allowed to operate here, but in the meantime there are a few legal ways to spin the wheel of chance in Puerto Vallarta.

You can wager on football, basketball, baseball, soccer, races, and boxing matches, and more at legalized sports books in Mexico. There is only one in Puerto Vallarta, located at the Holiday Inn, located roughly in the middle of the Hotel Zone. If you can’t stand to miss an opportunity to place a wager on your favorite team, this is the place to go. Stop in, check the odds, and place your bet. Odds are similar to Las Vegas lines. There’s a small lounge with multiple televisions if you want to watch the action and count your winnings (or mourn your losses).

The National Lottery offers ‘scratch tickets’, just like you’re familiar with in the U.S. or Canada. You’ll find them all over Puerto Vallarta in most of the same places you’d find them back home, such as liquor and grocery stores. They work the same way as you are familiar with…typically 3 like-amounts is a winner. Tickets are usually 5 or 10 pesos each (approx. 50 cents or a Dollar), and you can win up to thousands of pesos.

The Mexican Lottery operates several ‘Lotto’-style games as well, where you can pick your 6 favorite numbers and perhaps win based on drawings held daily or weekly. Again, this is just like at home…pencil in the little circles corresponding to the numbers of your choice, hand it to the cashier, and the machine spits out your ticket. Prizes are similar…up to 10’s of millions of pesos for matching all 6 numbers. If you win ‘the big one’, you can extend your vacation for a long time, or deal with the taxes taking it back home.

Soccer is the national sport and an obsession here…you can also make bets on soccer matches through a nationalized system at most ‘Prognatistas’. Check out the matches, make your pick, pay your money, then watch the game in nearly any bar, restaurant, or cantina (nearly every store has a TV, and odds are that it will be tuned to a soccer match if there is one to be had).

The traditional Mexican lottery consists of regular drawings from among thousands of numbered tickets also sold in many stores. Tickets come in long strips or large sheets, and purchasing a ticket is actually only purchasing a ‘share’ of the prize, for example 1% if the whole sheet has 100 individual tickets. You have to buy the entire sheet or strip if you want to claim the entire prize. Many ‘locals’ will spend a good amount of time searching the various tickets looking for one that includes their ‘lucky number’, then buying several so as to increase their share of the total prize. They’ll return in a few days after the drawing to examine the large poster which lists all the (hundreds) of winning numbers, then try their luck again with another search through the available tickets for the next drawing. Some of these tickets are sold months in advance of the drawing, so unless you’re staying in Puerto Vallarta for a long time, make sure you check the drawing date before you purchase to make sure you’ll be around to collect your jackpot!