Bolita is a form of lottery which enjoyed great popularity in Cuba and Florida in the latter 19th and early 20th centuries. In Florida it was primarily popular amongst working class black, Hispanic, and Italian communities.
The premise of the bolita game is basically that bets are placed on which numbered ball out of 100 numbered balls will be drawn out of a bag. There were many methods of cheating in bolita. Extra balls bearing a certain number could be put in the bag whilst other numbers were not included at all. Another method of cheating was to fill particular balls with lead in order to make them sink to the very bottom of the bag of balls. Yet another method of cheating was to place particular balls in ice before inserting them in the bag. This would make these certain balls colder than the others and therefore extremely easy for the ball selector to find.
Bolita continued to be played in Florida, though illegal, and is still popular in Cuba though it was illegalised following the Communist Revolution.