Restricted Casinos in Bolivia

However, only programmed machines are allowed in Bolivia. Roulette and some other games are not played here. One of the most famous casinos in Bolivia is Bingo Bahiti, which is visited daily by a large number of local and visiting players.

In Bolivia, the number of casinos and halls with slot machines has grown dramatically. In all 80 casinos of the Bingo Tahiti network in Bolivia there are the same bright neon signs, standard slot machines with the inscriptions in English and bingo halls, which are always full of visitors.

Indeed, Bolivia only permits “soft” gambling. There are no major players or roulette – only machines that are programmed to win at least 80 percent of the game’s time. (This is a little trickery, because in the bingo hall the winner appears after each game, and in the slot machine every move of the lever is counted, increasing your score by 5 cents.) Last Wednesday, an elderly woman named Mary Aguilar won nothing, but she was not very upset. “I often come here,” she says, “it’s a good pastime.”

But not everyone is convinced that the newest hobby of Bolivia is as harmless as it seems at first glance. “This is a dangerous topic,” said District Attorney Santa Cruz Hector Cornejo, who is part of the special unit for fighting corruption and crimes in the gambling business. He and other “knowledgeable people” – journalists, investigators and officials – whisper about the growing Russian mafia. Cornejo says that the casino is the place through which the criminal world launders its money and conducts the drug trade. According to him, with the opening of the casino, crime in the rich Bolivian city of Santa Cruz has grown, although the prosecutor refuses to go into details. Even Cardenas, who does not want to condemn the sector he runs, has to admit: “Gambling, drugs, prostitution and weapons are all interconnected.” Show less