The comedian Al Murray once commented that if we had less laws we’d be France, and if we had more laws we’d be Germany, I wonder what his take would be on the latest bingo news from Portugal. Thirty Brits were recently arrested for playing bingo in a pub in Portugal without a license.
They were actually playing for biscuits and chocolates as prizes. Even if the tickets were paid for, they were for minimal amounts. I am seriously doubting anyone would shell out a tenner for the chance of bagging a box of Milk Tray, this was just a bit of fun bingo. The incident was not a one off customer/bar person annoys police officer – angry police officer arrests everyone under trumped up charges situation.
The Yorkshire Tavern in Albufeira had apparently been visited by plain clothes police two weeks previously, so this was actually a planned operation. The customers in the bar, thirty in all, were taken to a police station, and were arrested for with playing bingo, or, wait for it, “observing a crime”.
Portugal has a higher crime rate than England and Wales, which is not surprising given their definition of criminal activity, maybe we could match them if we made bingo illegal, (even for biscuits). Perhaps the owner should have done their homework, as most of us know that when you are in a foreign country you shouldn’t make assumptions about the law and culture based on what you know about your own laws and culture (fondling in public in certain countries comes to mind…). And, in many countries the police can be what ‘we’ would perceive to be heavy handed, so it’s always best to avoid them…even if you don’t think you’ve done anything wrong.
Our hearts do nevertheless go out to Marianne Pittaway the pub landlady, and her customers for being locked up for several hours and having to endure court appearances for having a bit of bingo fun. Meanwhile, over the border in Barcelona, a poker club has just opened where you can legally smoke marijuana while playing poker. What a mad world, the mind boggles! Original article.
