Organized groups of Chinese mafia would be behind the illegal lottery sales that have proliferated in the country, causing the Social Protection Board to stop receiving more than ¢175 billion a year. These groups are also joined by some Colombian and Panamanian capital and a 2018 Drug Control Police report pointed to an American named Brannon as the leader of the sale of illegal lottery in the country, linking it with Mafia from the Philippines, Macao, Vietnam, China and Hong Kong.
The different criminal groups have reacted with annoyance to a series of reports published by Telenoticias journalist Greivin Moya. Now they put a price on his head, so he remains in the custody of the most specialized judicial authorities in the country.
But journalist Moya is not the only victim of threats by these groups of gangsters, who have also intimidated various merchants to force them to sell illegal lotteries.
Although several interest groups ensure that the national lottery is a monopoly, and the Constitutional Chamber has said that this is not the case, since most of the monies resulting from the sales of the Social Protection Board are allocated to various programs that help vulnerable groups in the country. Therefore, only the Board can sell and produce a lottery in Costa Rica, but these organized gangs finance what is known as “the bank”, a fund of a certain amount with which illegal lotteries are made that pay between 85 and 90% of the investment. Thus, they have created “mini businesses” selling these products throughout the country, and through these structures they carry out all types of crimes, including money laundering.