December 29, 2019 was the day of Brad's Boledo "numba play."
That was a Sunday - and, in what was surely a gift from the Boledo gods, the most predictable jackpot sequence played. In the last jackpot draw of 2019, the first prize numbers were 2-0-2-0. Thousands of buyers came up BIG. And reports say Brads took a hit in the vicinity of 8 million dollars in the biggest boledo payout ever.
Well, since taking over the boledo, government has put a cap on how many instances of high volume numbers such as "25" can be bought at the end of the year.
Government is doing it to mitigate risk but some players are crying foul - because it's a gamble for both sides - and, in Boledo town, lest we forget "any numba could play."
But in this case, the number "25" was sold out and no longer available for sale before the December 24th draw. And of course, as those Boledo gods would have it: that same 25 played later that night.
The situation sparked questions online about fairness and transparency within the lottery system. Managing Director of Belize Government Lotteries Limited, Janel Espat, told us via phone that betting limits are not new and are a standard risk-management practice.
Voice of: Janel Espat, Managing Director - Belize Government Lotteries Limited
"Yes, we are aware that the number 25 was sold out on Christmas Eve on December 24th and it just so happened that that was actually the number that was drawn that night. I have been interviewed before and I've been asked before about the betting limits and I have shared that betting limits are not something new. From way back there have been limit set. The exception, the difference now is that the system is completely digitized and therefore the threshold limits are preset within the system. And so instead of agents being called and asked not to sell a particular number, the betting limits are, like I said, preset and once the sales of any number reach the betting limit, then that number would no longer be available for sale. So that's what happened on December 24th and number 25 reached the full betting limit. Nevertheless, there was a huge win. The betting limits are set very high and they're set with one intention in mind, obviously, to mitigate Our losses. The Belize Government Lottery Limited was established to provide funding for the National Health Insurance and so we must ensure that we are in a position to do exactly that and to remain profitable. But just to give you an idea and to put everything into perspective, I wanted to share that over the past two years, we have paid out $181 million in winnings. And that is 72% of our sales. So the intention of setting the betting limit is to ensure that we maintain 70% to 72% in total payout. And that is what we have been able to achieve thus far."
"Well, that by no means means that anything is rigged. It simply means that there is a limit, a preset limit that we have set. anybody who purchases the number will still win if that number is drawn. In terms of the drawing on the 24th of December, we had winnings in excess of $1.3 million. So we had almost a 300% payout on that one particular night."
And as if the questions about transparency weren't enough, the names of the winners of the million dollar lottery have not and will not be released. Espat says that the release of winners' names and images is not automatic and depends entirely on written consent from each individual.
Janel Espat, Managing Director - Belize Government Lotteries Limited
"We are not releasing the names because we're respecting the choices of the winners. We have a consent form that we have asked everyone to sign to consent whether or not they are in agreement with us releasing their names and/or their image. And what I can share with you is that so far we have had eight of the nine persons collect their winnings already. There's still one person who has not redeemed their prize. And from those eight that have collected, two persons were not in agreement to disclose their image at all. So not their face, not from their neck down, nothing at all, and of course not their name. And they have simply shared with us that that's their choice because they wish to protect their privacy. And so we must respect that as well."
Jaleeza Roberts -
"Yes, we do understand that. But how is it that the public can be assured that these are actual persons receiving this money as opposed to it just, you know, put it this way, the company saying persons have received it and no one receives it because no one knows?"
Janel Espat, Managing Director - Belize Government Lotteries Limited
"Well, if you would like to come in and visit our office, and we've extended this invitation before, you can come in and you can go to our audited financial statements and you will see there where all the payments were made last year and for this year where eight of those nine payments have already been made. So I invite you to come and look at it and review it for yourself and see that it has been paid."
