Old video from a card game tournament is shared as recent visuals from a casino in Saudi Arabia - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
December 20, 2021
A video is being shared on social media claiming it as recent visuals from a casino in Saudi Arabia. This video shows a large gathering of Muslims playing a card game in a big hall. Sharing the same video, a few other social media posts expressed their displeasure with the Saudi Government for imposing COVID-19 restrictions in visiting Mecca but allowing a large gathering in a casino. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Recent visuals of a large group of Muslims playing at a Casino in Saudi Arabia.
Fact: The video shared in the post is an old one. This video shows a 2018 incident of hundreds of Saudi Muslims participating in the ‘Baloot Championship’ tournament organised by the Saudi Arabia General Sports Authority. This tournament was held at King Abdullah Studies and Research Centre in Riyadh. Baloot is a popular card game that is being played for more than 100 years in Saudi Arabia. Casino or gambling are strictly prohibited in Saudi Arabia. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
On reverse image search of the screenshots in the video, it is found out that videos with similar visuals are being circulated on social media at least since April 2018. They can be seen here and here. These users mentioned it as the visuals of a card game tournament held in Saudi Arabia’s capital city Riyadh. When we searched for more sources using relevant keywords, a video with similar visuals was found in an article published by ‘The News International’ website on 06 April 2018. This article reported it as the visuals of the first-ever ‘Baloot championship’ held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This championship was reportedly held at King Abdullah Studies and Research Centre in Riyadh. Baloot, also well known as belote, is a popular card game for Gulf youth. The Saudi Arabia Kingdom’s General Sports Authority had organised this tournament for the first time on 04 April 2018. A few more visuals from the ‘2018 Baloot championship’ can be seen here and here.
Reporting the details and images of this tournament, the ‘Saudi Press Agency’ website published an article on 04 April 2018. A total of 12,288 players had reportedly participated in this ‘Baloot Championship’. According to the details provided in the article, Saudi Arabia General Sports Authority had announced a reward of about one million Saudi Riyals for the first four prize winners of the tournament. Reporting the same, several other news websites have also published articles in 2018. They can be read here and here. According to these reports, several prominent celebrities, political leaders, and former football players have attended this card tournament.  The Saudi Government had conducted its last ‘Baloot Championship’ tournament in February 2020.
Saudi Arabia strictly adheres to its constitution that is written based on Islam’s holy text, Quran. Quran strictly prohibits gambling games or Casino. Saudi Arabia prohibits casinos and other gambling games that are against the Quran’s principles.  On the other hand, Baloot is a traditional card game that is being played more than 100 years ago in Saudi Arabia.
To sum it up, an old video from a card game tournament is falsely shared as the recent visuals of a casino in Saudi Arabia.