An operation by the National Revolutionary Police (PNR) in the town of El Caney, municipality of Santiago de Cuba, ended with the dismantling of a "bolita bank" and the seizure of cash, calculators, notebooks, and other materials related to the illegal activity.
The action, —a channel linked to the Ministry of the Interior (MININT) in Santiago de Cuba— was initiated following a citizen complaint that prompted law enforcement to conduct a home search in the area.
The images from the operation show four uniformed PNR agents alongside a table with large amounts of bills, documents, and a calculator, in what appears to be the formal presentation of the seized evidence.
According to the official report, the operation targeted a "bank," the highest level of the bolita structure, which consists of players, listeros or pointers, collectors, and at the top, the bankers, who provide the capital, pay the winnings, and manage the network from the shadows.
"It is no secret to anyone that these illegal games have often generated other crimes such as theft, fraud, and disruptions of order, which is why they are dealt with severely by the authorities, enforcing the law," stated the communiqué from MININT in Santiago.
La bolita —also known as Cuban charade— is a clandestine lottery that has been prohibited in Cuba since 1959, and its illegality was reaffirmed by the current Penal Code, Law 151 of 2022.
Article 281.1 of that code provides for bankers, collectors, spotters or promoters of illicit games penalties of one to three years in prison, with fines of up to 300,000 quotas.
When the crime involves two or more people, the penalty may range from three to eight years of imprisonment.
Despite more than six decades of prohibition, the practice persists throughout the country and has seen a resurgence linked to the economic crisis, even relying on mobile applications that enable betting without depending on radio broadcasts from abroad.
The case of El Caney adds to a series of similar operations recorded in 2026: in October, the police arrested nine individuals in the La Marina neighborhood of Matanzas for operating an illegal gaming house, and days before the current case, 82 counterfeit $100 bills were seized in Cárdenas along with gaming equipment.
A more distant precedent illustrates the magnitude that this activity can reach: in August 2020, the police seized more than one million Cuban pesos in Camagüey from an alleged bolita banker.
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