La Bolita: Is the Underground ‘Little Ball’ Lottery Making a Comeback in Florida?

Posted on: March 10, 2025, 12:24h. 

Last updated on: March 10, 2025, 12:55h.

Philip Conneller @casinoorgphilc Read More
Expertise: Gaming Business, Regulation, Tribal Gaming.
  • Bolita’s Return? Recent Florida arrests suggest a resurgence of the illegal lottery.
  • Is it making a comeback or just targeted enforcement?
  • Digital systems now process illicit bets on state lotteries.

Police in Florida have arrested two people alleged to have been running illegal lotteries from a restaurant and a laundromat in North Miami Beach.

Bolita, Florida, Juan Carlos Lora, Maria Victoria Martinez
Juan Carlos Lora and Maria Victoria Martinez, above, were arrested for operating bolita, a lottery game of Cuban origin. (Image: NBC Miami)

Juan Carlos Lora, 36, and Maria Victoria Martinez, 38, were detained last Wednesday and charged with promoting or conducting a lottery, bookmaking, and manufacturing, selling, or possessing a gambling device, WTVJ reports.

The game in question was “la bolita,” according to the police report, which in Spanish means “little ball.”

La bolita is a numbers game that came to Florida from Cuba. It was popular in the 19th century and first half of the 20th century among the state’s working-class Hispanic, Black, and Italian communities.

From the 1920s to 1940s, rival gangsters Ignacio Antinori and Charlie Wall fought a deadly turf war for control of the bolita rackets, a period that came to be known as “the Era of Blood.”

But for a game that was once entrenched in Florida’s underground gambling scene, there have been few recent reports of bolita busts — until last year, that is.

Is Bolita Back?

Since April 2024, there have been numerous raids and arrests related to the game’s operations, already outnumbering those of the previous decade

So, is bolita back in fashion?

The recent raids could indicate a resurgence in bolita’s popularity, or it could simply reflect the shifting priorities of law enforcement. And it’s true that Florida authorities have upped their game against illegal gambling operations in recent years.

That might have something to do with the $2.5 billion gaming compact the state signed with the powerful Seminole Tribe in 2021. The Seminoles, who operate Florida’s Hard Rock casinos, previously complained the state didn’t do enough to combat illegal gaming, and tougher enforcement likely played a part in compact negotiations.

The rackets’ numbers dwindled thanks to the decline in organized crime and the rise in opportunities for legal gambling, such as the Seminoles’ casinos and the Florida Lottery, but they never went away completely. They just adapted.

New Rules

Police reports suggest the games involved in the recent busts used a system that allowed customers to place illegal bets on legitimate state lotteries.

In the laundromat on Wednesday, police found “a whiteboard that was keeping track of lottery drawing results, bundles of cash, a computer used to input bets, and a receipt printer for gambling receipts,” according to WTVJ.

This all sounds a little high-tech for bolita, which in its purest form, involved 100 small, numbered balls, which were placed into a bag and mixed thoroughly before bets were taken on which numbers would be drawn.

All of which hopefully means a new “Era of Blood” isn’t just around the corner.