import re


def count_multi_punc(text, include_dots=True):
    """Count the number of multi punctuation characters in the text."""
    counter = 0

    if include_dots:
        pattern = r"(\!{2,}|\?{2,}|\.{3,})"
    else:
        pattern = r"(\!{2,}|\?{2,})"

    compiled = re.compile(pattern)

    for match in compiled.finditer(text.lower()):
        if match:
            counter += 1

    return counter