Matchstick Men: Bingo and betting

"All the fours. Betting laws." "Number three. OAP."

Centres for the elderly have been rumbling with the sound of heavy boots. Gambling-addicted oldsters, frittering away their time and money when they should have been doing something useful like knitting or waiting for their flu jabs, have been confronted by the forces of the law. All in the name of the odd ten-centimo-a-go game of bingo.

It's a question of a licence. Strangely enough, gambling does normally come with a piece of paper attached in the form of a licence. But some dotty OAPs having an innocent game of bingo ...? Whatever happened to the often sensible policy of the blind eye being turned? Well actually ... .

There are other examples of unlicensed gaming to be stumbled across. Poker clubs. Race nights. The local "bookie". You can find them all. There again, maybe they just place bets with matchsticks, like poker games are for matchsticks. Of course they are, just as the games are played by matchstick men, accompanied by their matchstick cats and dogs.

Bingo, though, has become the bizarre battleground for the fight between licensing and what is considered "appropriate" and a public determined to ignore the zealotry of regulators. It all kicked off during the summer of 2009 when the men from the interior ministry sought to be party-poopers at the fiesta in Pòrtol. A game of street bingo, one from which money was earmarked for church renovation work, was under threat as it was deemed to be illegal and its prizes were thought to be too valuable. In the end, it went ahead, as did other street bingos which, combined with the street supper, are something of a tradition during many fiestas.

Whatever the stakes and whatever is at stake, Mallorca has hardly been overrun by shady Asian betting syndicates. Probably because no one much would understand cricket's no-ball law. It is part of a country, however, which has the heaviest levels of gambling in Europe; or so it is said. This might come as a surprise, given that organised and official gambling appears to not be greatly in evidence in Mallorca. But there are always the lotteries.

What there is not is a Paddy Power or William Hill on every street. Bookmakers' shops have been slowly rolling out in regions of Spain, but they have yet to take hold. Perhaps they should. They would make a killing in the resorts amongst the Brits on tours who fancy placing a bet.

Spain, for all its obsession with gambling, remains highly regulated. Online casino gambling legislation s something towards which the national government has been edging, but internet gaming exists just the same, as also does online betting. Ask Real Mallorca. It has a shirt sponsorship deal with the Austrian-based Bet-At-Home. Not that it has come without some problems. The club, hardly in a position to turn down what is nearly a million euros of annual income from the deal, was aghast at adverts for Bet-At-Home with what appeared to be references to sex and drugs. All that was missing was the rock 'n' roll.

It is the Spanish gambling instinct that has helped to spawn the creation of "Gran Scala", the casino-stacked theme park-cum-hotel and leisure complex on the mainland. Just as the desert in Nevada is a haven for blackjack and roulette obsessives, so the desert near Zaragoza will become one - the Las Vegas of Europe. Or so the developers might hope.

But to get back to the OAPs and to bingo. The pensioners' federation in the Balearics is hoping to arrive at an agreement which will allow the games to continue. The story is not, however, as it may seem. There is more to it than some old dears being hounded by plod, or church restoration being put on hold because the interior ministry objects.

It should be noted that actions against these games were not expressly those of the interior ministry or police. There had been "denuncias". These had come from the associations which promote bingo in the Balearics. A blind eye being turned? Maybe it's right for it not to be. Where there are regulated and licensed games and organisations, they do have a right to protect their interests, even if it means upsetting a few OAPs. They have a right, and they are right. Gambling cannot be a free-for-all, because gambling is anything but free, even if you play for matchsticks.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.