When Will Boledo and Sunday Lottery Return?

The nightly Boledo and Sunday Lottery draws are yet to resume, following the cancellation of a lucrative contract awarded to Brads Gaming Group Limited under the previous government. Since terminating that agreement, the Briceño administration has introduced a new system and has put to tender bids from individuals or businesses interested in becoming agents in various parts of the country. Despite those efforts, there still has been no date set for the games of chance to resume.  Here’s more from P.M. Briceño.

Prime Minister John Briceño

Prime Minister John Briceño

“The delay has been simply because we want to do it right.  We tried to work very closely with the previous company for more than a year, calling them out, pointing them out, their deficiencies, areas where they are not meeting the conditions of the license and so, when we finally made the decision to cancel, we could not have had anything in place because had we done that then their attorney would say, “Well it was your intention from day one to cancel the Boledo.”  So we didn’t do anything, we just waited, trying to work with them.  Well after that, it has been a lengthy process because we want to do it right and we want to ensure that whatever is done that the Belizean taxpayers and then in this case, we hope that most of that monies will be able to go to the National Health Insurance.  So we hope, I am told, that the bids have been in and they opened the bids, I think, this week.  I’ve not gotten a briefing from CEO Garcia but I am supposed to get that hopefully next week.  I see within the next week or two that the announcements are going to be made and I know we’ve ordered the equipment and we’ve ordered the machines that will be used.  The program, I think, has been ready and I think they’ve been testing it to ensure that it can work well and that it cannot be hacked so easily.  So we’re doing it right and that’s what’s important.”