Brazilian social media is placing bingo bets on when Olympic terrorist attack will occur

Brazilians on social media have invented a very dark game: terrorist bingo.

According to local media reports by Jornal O Globo and O Povo Online, social media has sparked reports of some Brazilians allegedly playing a bingo-style game where they can bet on the date when they predict a terrorist attack will strike the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

Images of a so-called “attack jackpot” ticket have been making the rounds on Brazilian social media. But the images seem to be part of a very dark internet joke that lives on Twitter and Facebook, rather than in real life.

It’s not clear who began circulating the images, or whether the bingo boards are actually being used to place bets or just the invention of internet trolls.

Joke or not, many aren’t finding humor in the images, which have been picked up by media outlets in Brazil. The threat of a terrorist attack is real. Brazilian authorities recently arrested 10 alleged ISIS supporters suspected of planning an Olympics attack.

Still, the images of the terrorist bingo board seem to be resonating with a certain segment of Brazil’s population as pessimism grows amid the country’s political crisis, its worsening economic problems, the Zika virus, and the overall mismanagement leading up to the Olympic Games.

The Brazilian Institute of Public Opinion and Statistics (IBOPE) recently published a survey claiming more than half of the country feels the Olympics will do “more harm than good,” and only 32% of Brazilians think the games will bring benefits to their country.

 
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