Russian road roulette: It’s game on in Bulgaria!

Want to take part in real life Fast and Furious style illegal road races? Head over to Sofia city in Bulgaria then...

Adrenaline junkies hooked on fast cars, with a penchant for baiting the law, have found a new ‘game’ in Sofia, the capital city of Bulgaria. Known as ‘Russian road roulette,’ this game is played in the night at various traffic intersections throughout the city. The rules are pretty simple – just drive across traffic intersections at full throttle, ignoring red lights and without touching the brakes. Just make sure you don’t hit anything or kill anyone because if you do, you lose the game.

Road roulette is played at various pre-designated points in Sofia, with players being informed via text messages. And as seen in all those Fast and Furious movies, there are lookouts who scan the venue for police patrols, while spectators gamble away thousands of dollars while placing bets on who will win.

The game is not just about jumping red lights, there are other variations as well. These include driving around roundabouts in the wrong direction, at high speed, going in the wrong direction, and racing along the dual carriageway of the city's ring road.

A dozen or more people are reported to have died in these ‘races’ over the last few months, but with prize money amounting to many thousands of dollars and the Bulgarian police not being able to stop these illegal races completely, road roulette continues to roll for now.