Customers entered hidden room using secret phrase
By Kate Northrop
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A Florida woman was arrested for operating a gambling house out of a small shopping center store last week and was witnessed by investigators selling fake lottery tickets.
Investigators arrested a woman operating an illegal lottery in the backroom of a small store in a West Palm Beach shopping center.
Palm Beach County records show Viviana Andrea Navarro Gonzalez, 41, was booked at the Palm Beach County Jail last Wednesday and was charged with multiple counts related to operating an illegal gambling institution.
Navarro Gonzalez was released the following day, inmate records show.
A police report described reports of a hidden room in Navarro Gonzalez's store that held gambling machines and an illegal lottery. To get in and play, customers needed to know the secret phrase: "La Bolita."
The Florida Department of the Lottery and Florida Gaming Control Commission alerted the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office (PCSO) to a possible underground "Bolita" operation, which PCSO defined as a lottery-style game based on the New York or Florida lotteries with its own set of rules and better payouts than the state games.
An affidavit describes three occasions where undercover PCSO deputies bought fake lottery tickets at the establishment in question.
In one instance, two undercover PCSO deputies dressed in casual clothing visited the store identified as "Siempre Bellas" on North Congress Avenue in West Palm Beach in the affidavit, although there are no tax receipts for a business by that name or at the address the establishment was located, CBS12 pointed out.
The investigators gave an employee the code phrase, and they were led into a private room. There, they saw casino-style slot machines and unregulated lottery games, but the report says they did not see "any toys, prizes, or other tangible items to be offered as winnings." The slot machines gave PCSO probable cause of illegal gambling, but their suspicions were confirmed when they had the chance to play random numbers for the "Bolita" lottery.
The agents gave their numbers to the cashier, identified as Navarro Gonzalez. She generated their tickets and handed them their receipts.
A warrant was executed for her arrest. During an interview with police through an interpreter, she explained that she was a regular employee at the business in West Palm Beach, but she does not know who she works for or who pays her and that she receives payment from "random people." Additionally, the affidavit goes on to say, she told officers that if a customer had won the lottery using the numbers they played, they would only be paid out if the store had the funds to pay them.
Navarro Gonzalez is currently looking at three counts for operating a lottery, three counts for printing fake lottery tickets, three counts for selling or transmitting a fake lottery ticket, and one count for establishing a gambling place.
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Love this story. We have seen people altering a ticket but never selling fake tickets. Would love to see what the tickets looked like.
Here my prejudices thought I'd see another last name there. A good morning laugh came to me.
Artist 77, just read your comment again and last sentence is the same thought I had.
Googled it and bolita is Spanish for little ball. Type of lottery was popular in late 19th and early 20th centuries in Cuba and some working class populations in Florida.
Maybe I need to address my lottery picks by calling them my little Bolitas. Lol
They are printed out like receipts with the state and #'s you want to play. Someone did not like her because this type of lottery is all over the country. Especially Florida...
There was nothing fake about them. You got a 80-1 payoff if you selected the correct number out of 100 in the drum or whatever they used. Illegal yes, but not fake. They paid the winners or no one would have played. No one was saying oh this ticket does not look like a Florida lottery ticket. It's fake. They may have rigged it in some manner now and then but the patrons wouldn't have stood for that for long. How does the government get away with conducting a lottery that takes much more out of the player.
It's a Cuban lottery game-illegal in US. Google LaBolita Cubana. They list lottery results same as US lotteries.
Someone needs to reread the article. There was no guaranteed payout if there was a winner.
Yes, it was fraud and an unlicensed business. People were being ripped off.
"Additionally, the affidavit goes on to say, she told officers that if a customer had won the lottery using the numbers they played, they would only be paid out if the store had the funds to pay them."
That is misleading. They maybe couldn't pay them off that day if they won too much but would later. No one would play there if they didn't pay off. Their payouts were better than the states were or they would have just played with the state. They had say 50 players in the room at one time and two people running the game. No way they could have refused paying if they valued their lives. Illegal bookmaking has been going on in this country for well over 100 years and very rarely did they clamp down on that. Why this. It harmed no one.
new store policy: if we don't have enough cash on hand to pay out our illegal backroom lottery prizes, you may collect your winnings in the form of toilet paper, beer and baby diapers.
Uncle Sam needs his cut
Yet to hear a customer complain about not being paid at those places. The players understood that a one or two day delay was a possibility due to cash flow that might happen once or twice a year. These were not prizes in the thousands that were won. You do not have any clue how back room gambling dens operate. I do. They were getting an 80% payback on their play. The state gives you 50% on a similar type numbers game like Keno or daily numbers. If word got out that they didn't payoff don't you think business would shrink to a trickle. The operators were too smart to let that happen.
we are so lucky to have a confessed expert in illegal backroom gambling dens here on the forum to educate us all.