People v. Viruet Rosa
People v. Viruet Rosa
Opinion of the Court
The appellant was charged with violating § 4 of Act No. 220 of 1948 (Sess. Laws, p. 738), known as Bolita Act.
It appears from the record that a search was carried out in the defendant’s residence by several police officers, who found in a drawer of a table a piece of paper, square in shape, containing two three-digit numbers followed by a dash and a number on the right side. That piece of paper was offered and admitted in evidence without objection by the defendant. Emilio Torres, one of the police officers who carried out the search, testified the following immediately after identifying the paper:
“What is meant by bolita and bolipool? How do you bet on it?
It is a clandestine lottery consisting of so many thousands, that is, from 000 up to 999, and you bet on it in combination with the last three figures of the Puerto Rican Lottery. The person favored by that three-digit number wins a prize — a cash prize.
District Attorney: What relation is there between the three-digit numbers followed by a dash and the bolita game?
Witness: That the three-digit number, for example, the three-digit number itself is the number you bet on, and the number on the right side is the amount of money you are betting.
That is all with the witness.”
Appellant is not right. Section 4 of Act No. 220 punishes the mere possession of bolita material. As stated in the Mantilla case, supra (at 49), in discussing this question at length, “ . . . a different question is presented . . . where as here the materials are not susceptible of innocent use but are of such a nature that they could be used for no purpose other than to operate a bolita game. Under the latter circumstances, a violation of § 4 is established by proof of possession of such materials; no additional evidence of connection with a bolita game is required precisely because the materials themselves establish the said connection.” The possession of such material by the defendant having been established the legal precept has been complied with and, consequently, it is not necessary to prove other elements of relationship between the defendant and the bolita material.
It could be argued that in this case, contrary to the Mantilla case,
The judgment of the Superior Court will be affirmed.
Section 4 of Act No. 220 provides in its pertinent part as follows:
“Any person caught carrying or transporting or who has in his possession for any reason any papeleta, billete, ticket, notebook, list of number or letters, slips, or implements which can be used for the unlawful games of bolita, bolipool, combinations connected with the pools or baneas of the race tracks of Puerto Rico, and clandestine lotteries, and any person who possesses, sells, or in any way transports these or any other similar ones which may be utilized or used in said unlawful games or connected with the practice thereof, shall be guilty of a public offense. ...” (Italicized or ours.)
“In the fourth and fifth assignments the defendant attacks the weighing of the evidence by the lower court. The testimony shows that three detectives searched the house of the defendant pursuant to a search warrant; that among the things found were lists with numbers of three figures, followed by a dash and another number; that bolita is played by betting on a number with three figures; that in a bolita list, the first number is the number on which the bet is placed; that the number following the dash is the amount which is bet; and that these lists were bolita numbers, as they answered the foregoing description of lists of bolita numbers.” (Art. 49.) (Italics ours.)
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.