A listener to "Test Match Special" last year came up with the idea for a game called "Boycott Bingo". This entails calling out "bingo" every time the great man - Sir Geoffrey - utters one of his regular and predictable clichés, e.g. "corridor of uncertainty", "we used to play on uncovered wickets" or "my mum would have caught that in her pinny".
Mallorca has its own version of Boycott Bingo in that bingo illegality crops up as regularly and as predictably as the Great Yorkshireman states that his gran could have "hit that with a stick of rhubarb". One moment it's outdoor games at fiestas being banned because minors are in attendance - bingo!; the next it's some old dears having their games interrupted by the sound of heavy boots - bingo!; then it's a hotel being raided because it's conducting games that it shouldn't be - bingo!
When day centres for the elderly were being raided by plod who suspected - correctly - that the oldsters were up to no good in playing bingo for which there was no licence, all manner of indignation was released. How insensitive. Why stop a little bit of pleasure for the old folk? It was accepted that perhaps it had been a bit heavy-handed. However, it turned out that behind certainly one of the illicit bingo games was something a bit fishy that proved worthy of further investigation.
There is no real uncertainty regarding the playing of bingo. You need a licence. The absence of one may have something to do with plod having pounded down the corridors of a hotel in Sa Coma to put a stop to its bingo. I could always tell you which hotel, but I won't, because it's not been reported elsewhere, so I'd rather not say. But rest assured, keep checking Sa Coma hotels on "Trip Advisor" and there will doubtless be some entry referring to a bingo raid. "I was just about to call 'house', and this policeman took my card away. I shall be complaining to the tour operator."
One difference between the relatively small cerveza of the old folks' day centre bingo games and those in the hotel has to do with the amount of money the latter raise. Two and seven? Twenty-seven. Twenty-seven thousand euros. A month.
If you were to go and look on "Trip Advisor" and choose a hotel on Mallorca, you might well find mention of bingo among the entertainment on offer. Most hotels have games. And are they all correctly licensed? I couldn't begin to answer that question. But the two bingo associations - AESBI and ASBA - have been making repeated representations to relevant authorities regarding the need to "eradicate the large number of illegal bingo games that proliferate" on Mallorca and the other islands.
A couple of days before the raid in Sa Coma, the two associations had in fact presented a proposal for the establishment of electronic bingo terminals in hotels as part of their drive to stamp out illegal games. The proposal may well be greeted favourably, as a "win" would involve a ten per cent tax finding its way into the coffers of the Hacienda.
It will be instructive to see how this all pans out, as Mallorca's hotels, anticipating the likely change of national government, are putting together various proposals of a legal nature for the new Partido Popular administration to chew over.
One of these is to do with the law on intellectual property. This has an impact on the "complementary offer" of entertainment in its widest sense within hotels (of which, incidentally, the electronic bingo terminals would be a new addition, say the bingo associations). It doesn't have to do solely with any rights from musical performances. It also covers television.
Decisions by both the European Court of Justice and the Spanish Supreme Court have led to interpretations that television broadcasts in hotel rooms constitute "public communication" and are therefore liable to rights payments. This is because, for the most part, a cable or satellite signal is re-transmitted by the hotel to the rooms. Were signals to go directly to the rooms (far more costly to set up), then the communication would be private, meaning no broadcast rights payments.
On these two matters, the bingo and the broadcasting, I am with the bingo associations and the police but not with the public communication interpretation; charges are probably passed on for what is made public but is consumed in private. As for bingo, though it is harmless fun, it is fair to ask what actually happens to money that is raised. There is no uncertainty, or shouldn't be. Gaming is either licensed or it isn't.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Showing posts with label Bingo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bingo. Show all posts
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Thursday, October 21, 2010
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.
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.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
It Only Takes A Minute
Or a second, or not even that really. I have this in my mind as I drive the roads. Only takes a second for potential oblivion for someone, myself included. I commend it as a thought for everyone to hold in their heads. It only took a second for the driver of one of the vehicles involved in the smash in Alcúdia the other day to not observe the stop sign and end up in a collision with a van and a people-carrier, with a three-year-old left in a serious condition.
The accident took place at the junction of the Avenida Tucan (the Hidropark road) and the bypass by the mountain. It is not an accident that is hard to understand happening. Some of the junctions are confusing and downright dangerous, no more so than the one at the turning into the road for Cala San Vicente. The combination of fast-moving traffic, filter system and means of turning left from one road makes these junctions accidents in waiting. They should get rid of all of them and replace them with roundabouts. The locals may not be too clever where roundabouts are concerned, but at least they slow traffic and create less confusion. Roundabout accidents tend to be confined, at worst, to shunts, but they rarely cause multiple pile-ups; the filter junctions do. And while on confusing road layouts, can someone try and explain to me what in God's name one is supposed to do on those roads by the Eroski on the outskirts of Pollensa going into the industrial estate; it is a complete shambles of confusion.
It only takes a second, but if you need several seconds to be really sure, then take them, regardless of the idiot behind doing the gesticulating or giving it large on the horn.
Thirty-three ... the interior ministry
Ever ones to try and interfere with the previously unmolested workings of fiestas and tourism, different ministries seem intent on finding new ways of generally hacking everyone off with the irrelevant and the stupid. Let's run this one by you. In the municipality of Marratxí, there has been a tradition during the fiesta in Pòrtol of holding a street bingo. Money raised from the event this year has been earmarked to go towards renovation work on the local church. In step the heavy boots of the interior ministry, via the local police, which says that it cannot take place as it is illegal; these bingos take place in many other villages and towns. The ministry reckons that they have got out of control, that their prizes are too valuable and that they do not exclude those under eighteen.
The street bingos are something of a tradition, and frankly what harm do they do? If there was really a desire to eradicate some traditions, then the authorities should concentrate on more questionable aspects such as those involving genuine animal cruelty (and no not the ducks in Can Picafort, which is even more potty than it was now that rubber ducks are involved). Anyway, the bingo in Pòrtol did take place, and seemingly no-one tried to intervene to prevent it.
No flights?
And something of a follow-up to the piece of two days ago about the hoteliers and the so-called "catastrophe" that is this season. I am told that many hotels, those contracted to certain tour operators, have no real problem with occupancy, in that they are contracted for their allocations. A problem lies with the airlines providing sufficient flights. One hotel in Alcúdia has places but is unable to sell them - and there is demand - because flights cannot be obtained. Or that is what is being said. Not sure. On a different matter, I am also told that one tour operator, First Choice, is pulling tourists out of Bellevue and placing them elsewhere - Sea Club or, in the case of guests signed up for all-inclusive, Jupiter. There are, apparently, "certain problems".
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - For example, The New Christy Minstrels, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vXmx3A1SyA. Today's title - no clue needed.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
The accident took place at the junction of the Avenida Tucan (the Hidropark road) and the bypass by the mountain. It is not an accident that is hard to understand happening. Some of the junctions are confusing and downright dangerous, no more so than the one at the turning into the road for Cala San Vicente. The combination of fast-moving traffic, filter system and means of turning left from one road makes these junctions accidents in waiting. They should get rid of all of them and replace them with roundabouts. The locals may not be too clever where roundabouts are concerned, but at least they slow traffic and create less confusion. Roundabout accidents tend to be confined, at worst, to shunts, but they rarely cause multiple pile-ups; the filter junctions do. And while on confusing road layouts, can someone try and explain to me what in God's name one is supposed to do on those roads by the Eroski on the outskirts of Pollensa going into the industrial estate; it is a complete shambles of confusion.
It only takes a second, but if you need several seconds to be really sure, then take them, regardless of the idiot behind doing the gesticulating or giving it large on the horn.
Thirty-three ... the interior ministry
Ever ones to try and interfere with the previously unmolested workings of fiestas and tourism, different ministries seem intent on finding new ways of generally hacking everyone off with the irrelevant and the stupid. Let's run this one by you. In the municipality of Marratxí, there has been a tradition during the fiesta in Pòrtol of holding a street bingo. Money raised from the event this year has been earmarked to go towards renovation work on the local church. In step the heavy boots of the interior ministry, via the local police, which says that it cannot take place as it is illegal; these bingos take place in many other villages and towns. The ministry reckons that they have got out of control, that their prizes are too valuable and that they do not exclude those under eighteen.
The street bingos are something of a tradition, and frankly what harm do they do? If there was really a desire to eradicate some traditions, then the authorities should concentrate on more questionable aspects such as those involving genuine animal cruelty (and no not the ducks in Can Picafort, which is even more potty than it was now that rubber ducks are involved). Anyway, the bingo in Pòrtol did take place, and seemingly no-one tried to intervene to prevent it.
No flights?
And something of a follow-up to the piece of two days ago about the hoteliers and the so-called "catastrophe" that is this season. I am told that many hotels, those contracted to certain tour operators, have no real problem with occupancy, in that they are contracted for their allocations. A problem lies with the airlines providing sufficient flights. One hotel in Alcúdia has places but is unable to sell them - and there is demand - because flights cannot be obtained. Or that is what is being said. Not sure. On a different matter, I am also told that one tour operator, First Choice, is pulling tourists out of Bellevue and placing them elsewhere - Sea Club or, in the case of guests signed up for all-inclusive, Jupiter. There are, apparently, "certain problems".
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - For example, The New Christy Minstrels, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vXmx3A1SyA. Today's title - no clue needed.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
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