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Boledo, it's Belize's national obsession - but it's changing hands. As we told you last night, Government has cancelled Brad's Boledo license- and the company has confirmed that its last draw will be the Sunday Jackpot on April 30th.
So what happens after that? Well, tonight, that is still not known - and government isn't giving any clear answers. Government put out a hazily worded release today saying, quote "The public will be advised when the Government Lotteries will resume normal activity."
So, will the game resume on Tuesday May second under government control? Well that isn't clear tonight - but form what the PM told us this afternoon in Orange Walk, it might be a few weeks:
Reporter:
"People just want to know, because Boledo is a national obsession, people want to know how will they buy their Boledo next week? "
John Briceño, Prime Minister
"well obviously when during the pandemic when they were not selling Boledo for a few weeks, nobody lost their life so we want to ensure that whatever, is done, we want to ensure that it can be done properly and in a way that the Belizeans, that our citizens can benefit from it and that is as much as I can go because as you know, the former prime minister has threatened to sue the government."
Reporter:
"It's in line with the comments you've been making since January, I'm just asking if that's the case, what we found in January, what we were seeing in terms of discrepancies and not following certain policies and requirements as per the agreement, if that remained throughout the months and that's the reason why yesterday that revocation happened. "
John Briceño, Prime Minister
"Well that's the only reason we would revoke the license. We cannot revoke a license if the people are living up to the conditions and we have been meeting with them since last year, I think from August and talking to them and pointing out where the deficiencies have been. I wish I could tell you what I feel but I think that's as far as I could go but I want to assure you that whenever the government is able to launch the Boledo and the lottery, we want to ensure that the majority of the money stays with government and we want to use it for health, we have to find a way to pay for the national health insurance, we have sports that we want to be able to make more monies available, and even health, it is monies that our country can definitely put to good use."
We also asked the Chairman of the Lotteries Committee Narda Garcia for comment and she said that - base don lawyer's advice they cannot comment.
As for the lawyer for Brad's Gaming - that's Dean Barrow. He has said his client will not seek an injunction, and neither will it ask for the license to be restored. But he has said they will sue the government for the wrongful termination of their contract which had 7 years left. That suit is expected to claim damages in the tens of millions of dollars.
Government; public notice today said If you have any queries, kindly send your concerns to the Lotteries Secretary at BelizeInvestment@invest.gov.bz.
