The Underground Rebel Bingo Club meets in secret locations to play hardcore bingo, according to its publicity
After a lengthy eight months of investigation, the Authority for Food and Economic Safety (ASAE) pounced and detained ten people in an operation to combat illegal gambling.
An ASAE spokesman said that "about a thousand individuals were caught in the act of playing bingo and ten people have been accused of organising the event."
According to ASAE, the red-not bingo action was a highly organised affair and used new technology, "they publicised events using a website and social networking pages, encouraging people to come and play bingo but only letting them know where to assemble two weeks in advance and then, just a few hours before the beginning of the game, giving them the precise location via SMS.”
The Underground Rebel Bingo Club website had links to events in countries including the USA and UK but if you wanted to go to an event you would have to have travelled to Lisbon, Coimbra, or Oporto where the arrests took place. There is however an 'Algarve' section on the website, see end of article.
In March 2012, Paulo Silva was identified as the master criminal who brought the concept to the Iberian Peninsula after a chance discovery in London but it is not known if he was among those accused.
In the ASAE action in Oporto around 20 inspectors were gainfully employed to nab the offenders with the collaboration of the Tax and Customs Authority, and the Public Security Police with their batons and 1,000 yard stares. In addition to the arrests it was reported that bingo cards were seized - proof indeed m'Lud.
Unlike events in the Algarve, where an entire roomfull of people were arrested when an illegal game of bingo was being played in a bar in Albufeira, only the organisers were hauled off in this latest piece of law enforcement, leaving a crowd of 1,000 wondering where to party next.
