Cuba’s gambling culture is a story of contrasts: a nation that once hosted some of the world’s most famous mob-run casinos in 1950s Havana, then banned every form of gambling after the 1959 revolution, yet where clandestine betting, from the beloved bolita numbers game to dominoes and cockfighting, has never disappeared. Prohibition changed the law, but it did not erase the habit.

The Havana Casino Era

Casinos grew in Cuba from the 1920s alongside tourism, and by the 1950s Havana was a byword for glamour and vice. Working with American organised-crime figures, most famously Meyer Lansky, dictator Fulgencio Batista and his associates helped fund hotel-casinos such as the Riviera and the Capri (Lansky’s Riviera reportedly cost around $18 million). For many Cubans, these casinos became symbols of the corruption and inequality of the Batista regime.

The 1959 Ban

When Fidel Castro’s forces took Havana at the start of 1959, the casinos were looted almost immediately, and Lansky had already fled. A decree in February 1959 briefly allowed several hotel-casinos to reopen, but tourism did not recover. Among the revolution’s measures was a sweeping prohibition on games of chance for money, part of a wider campaign to dismantle what Castro saw as the excesses of the old order. When the hotel-casinos were nationalised in October 1960, gambling was formally outlawed and the venues closed for good. Even the National Lottery was abolished. That prohibition remains the legal foundation for Cuba’s gambling ban today.

Bolita and La Charada

Despite the ban, the most enduring gambling tradition is bolita (‘little ball’), a clandestine numbers lottery. It was legal before 1959 and has always been popular; today it operates underground. Players wager on numbers, with winning numbers commonly taken from US state (for example Florida, Georgia, or New York) lottery draws. Bolita is inseparable from la charada, a system that assigns each number an animal, object, or meaning. Its origins trace to Chinese labourers who arrived in Cuba in the 19th century and brought a charade-style figure covered in symbols and their corresponding numbers. Cubans caught participating can face penalties under the Penal Code, yet the game endures.

Everyday Betting Today

Beyond bolita, small-stakes gambling threads through daily life. Dominoes is a national pastime, often played competitively for modest sums. Baseball, Cuba’s signature sport, draws informal wagering. Cockfighting persists, with state-run pits and large, off-book stakes around them. None of this is licensed or regulated; it survives in the informal economy.

Attitudes and the Future

Culturally, betting is deeply ingrained despite decades of prohibition, and neighbourhood boliteros are widely known and quietly tolerated. Whether Cuba ever returns to legal, regulated gambling is uncertain and would depend on major political and economic change; as of 2026 there is no sign of a shift, and all gambling remains illegal.

You must be 18+ to gamble. Gambling is illegal in Cuba; this article is informational and historical only.

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