Alot of muslims can, and will look the other way sometimes for the right amount of money or what not, and then just play games.
Either that, or those guys intend to booze, gamble, whore it up and then "martyr" themselves.
I don't think anyone is pulling his leg. When my father was stationed in Doha, Qatar, he told me the joke was that Allah could not see through the roof of a man's house. So basically, what he did in his own house was not governed by Allah. Similar concept.
I used to live in Bahrain. I don't know about Allah not being able to see them but the Saudis did come over to party. I was a physiotherapist there and you should have seen the fancy outfits under the black robes. Spiked heels and all.