Happy hours and pub crawls have been outlawed in Rhode Island, but there's a new drinking game that's raising eyebrows with law enforcement.
NBC 10's I-Team hidden camera revealed a potentially dangerous drinking game called beer pong.
It's generally believed it began in the 1960s at a Dartmouth College fraternity. It's also known as a game called Beirut.
With a variety of rules, the idea is to shoot a ping pong ball into a cup of beer or water and be rewarded by getting to drink the beer out of the 16 ounce cups or claiming a pot of money or, as our undercover producer found, getting a shot of booze when you win.
Over the years, Rhode Island lawmakers have outlawed happy hours and pub crawls, both creating atmospheres for aggressive drinking.
The pub crawls were outlawed following the death of a University of Rhode Island student in Newport who was drunk and fell under a bus.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving said it feels the beer pong games, held in area clubs and bars, have taken the place of happy hours and pub crawls.
"We actually looked at that. Is there something in there that would be relative to what they're doing now? Right now, the answer is no. They can actually do it legally. That's why we're trying to promote can you be more respsonsible," said Gabrielle Abbate, of MADD Rhode Island.
One local club routinely has beer pong tournaments. They are legal, and bar managers claim they can keep track of who's drinking how much and take action if a beer pong player has had too much to drink.
But MADD doesn't buy it.
"Some of the clubs that I think that are doing it that you're alluding to probably don't have the manpower or the training to really, really look around and make sure that everyone has come in without being preloaded, which kids are doing now, and that are leaving and are getting into their vehicles," Abbate said.
Lawmakers are considering outlawing beer pong tournaments. The I-Team's Alison Bologna will report that part of the story Wednesday on NBC 10 News at 11.
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