As 2026 draws toward its final quarter, new data from Belize’s state-owned lottery operator has laid bare the gap between the massive popularity of the national Boledo game and the underwhelming share of its profits flowing to the country’s grassroots and elite sporting communities. For the 2025-2026 fiscal year, total consumer spending on Fi We Boledo reached a staggering $144 million, according to Narda Garcia, chair of Belize Government Lotteries Limited and CEO of the Office of the Prime Minister.
After accounting for $100 million in payout to winning ticket holders and covering operational costs, the lottery recorded a net profit of $27.4 million for the fiscal period, with projections pointing to even higher consumer spending and profits in the 2026-2027 cycle. To date, the Ministry of Sports has only received $2 million in donations from the lottery – just 7% of the current year’s total net profit – split into two $1 million installments, the first of which was transferred to the National Sports Council at the end of February.
Garcia has now publicly thrown her support behind securing a guaranteed, larger slice of annual lottery profits for Belize’s sports sector, arguing that increased public funding would meaningfully advance ongoing efforts to strengthen local athletic organizations. Speaking to Sports Minister Kevin Daly, Garcia noted that additional funding would directly support the ministry’s new pilot program, which aims to cover overhead costs for national sports associations to ease their financial burdens and free up resources for athlete development.
“To ensure that the pilot program you have now… that’s going to go a long way,” Garcia said, adding that the higher projected profits for the coming fiscal year create room to increase the annual contribution to sports. The call for a mandatory dedicated share of Boledo revenues comes as local sports stakeholders have long argued that the sector deserves far more support from the lucrative lottery, which draws widespread participation across Belize and generates hundreds of millions in annual consumer spending. Currently, contributions to sports from the lottery are ad-hoc rather than guaranteed by policy, leaving the sector vulnerable to inconsistent funding that hinders long-term planning for athlete training, facility upgrades, and community programming.
This report is adapted from a transcribed television evening newscast originally published online.