In Mexico, local representatives from the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party have reportedly formally asked the governor for the northern state of Nuevo Leon to halve the amount senior citizens must pay under a new 10% gambling tax.

According to a report from G3Newswire, the new tax endorsed by state governor Jaime Rodriguez Calderon came into effect last month and is part of recently-introduced gambling reforms that local officials hope will bring in up to $46.8 million a year to help pay down the state’s deficit and fund a special security program.

However, critics reportedly fear that the December duty could put as many as 10,000 jobs at risk with the Mexican Gaming Association recently estimating that around 70% of the income generated by casinos and betting shops in the state comes from seniors.

The Nuevo Leon gambling tax is immediately applied to every $4.69 a player spends and G3Newswire additionally reported that last week saw a group of senior citizens deliver a petition against the new duty reportedly containing some 6,000 names. They were joined by members of the Union Of Amusement Center And Casino Workers, who moreover requested that ten recently-shuttered gaming centers that had employed some 3,500 people be immediately re-opened.

Carlos Valles from the Union Of Amusement Center And Casino Workers has also reportedly asked the local government for its support in re-opening casinos closed in the city of Monterrey with the loss of 3,000 jobs before Calderon’s election in 2015. He explained that instituting all three of his requests would see the state of 5.1 million people benefit to the tune of around $32.8 million a year.

G3Newswire reported that federal gambling legislation remains stalled in Mexico City while Nuevo Leon is being seen as something of a battleground between gambling tax proponents and opponents. Marco Gonzalez Valdez from the Institutional Revolutionary Party, who is one of twelve local representatives in the nation’s lower Chamber Of Deputies, recently declared that every one of the latest proposals would be discussed.