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Greek govt bans electronic games

 
 
Spatula Clarke
17:02 / 05.09.02
BBC report

Trying to cut levels of gambling in their country, the Greek government have banned all 'public' playing of electronic games.

"The whole matter could remain in the sphere of comedy if it didn't concern directly the employment of thousands of people," said the Greek Internet Café Union.

"In China they prohibit access to political sites, in some other countries prevent connection to sites of sexual content and in Greece it is illegal to use personal computers and games consoles for playing games," it continued.

The gaming community has accused the government of taking the country back to the 1970s when individuals were arrested for playing cards at home.
 
 
Grey Area
17:52 / 05.09.02
Another article on the ban

This article mentions that “The blanket ban was decided in February after the government admitted it was incapable of distinguishing innocuous video games from illegal gambling machines”. It also makes the point that the games included with the Windows OS are effectively illegal as well.
 
 
w1rebaby
20:57 / 05.09.02
Basically, all mobile phones built within the last ten years are now illegal in Greece. Snake? Gambling, obviously. You're fiddling with your phone? You might be playing a game...

I wonder how long this one will last, unless the Greek police are on performance-related pay. Who's going to enforce it? Makes drug laws look like well-thought-out pieces of legitimate legislation...
 
 
cusm
00:29 / 06.09.02
It does make Micro$oft Windows illegal, so it can't be all that bad.
 
 
Fist of Fun
08:07 / 16.09.02
I remember reading on the BBC news website last week that a Greek court has ruled this unconstitutional.

The article went on to say that the union of internet cafe owners (now that's a union for the new millenium) was up in arms about it all. The article even went on to say that Greece has one of the lowest internet usages in Europe and internet cafes were doing a lot to redress that position.
 
 
doglikesparky
11:16 / 18.09.02
Yeah, Fist is right. This has now been overturned but for a minute there it was starting to get pretty silly...

The BBC story is here.
 
  
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