http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/26939.html


The government of Greece is making heroic efforts to humiliate the nation in front of the entire world, by banning all electronic games. That's right; something as innocent as playing computer chess on your laptop in a hotel lobby is now a crime with penalties of up to three months in stir and a fine of 10,000 euros.

The purpose behind this charming legislation is to crack down on Internet gambling (which already was illegal) -- or, rather, to enable legislators to enact their little public dance of righteous aversion to Internet gambling.

Improved enforcement of existing law is all that was needed, but there's a problem. Unfortunately, the Greek government is "incapable of distinguishing innocuous video games from illegal gambling machines," according to an older article from the English-language Kathimerini newspaper, written while the bill was under consideration.

Now it's official. The legislature has concluded that all electronic games have got to go because the bureaucrats they're maintaining on the public payroll aren't swift enough to figure out the difference between video poker and TuXkart. Perhaps enforcing literacy requirements and sobriety regulations for government workers would have been a more productive approach, but it's too late for that now. ®


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[deleted

[This message has been edited by Crawler (edited 09-04-2002).]

Damn, I was so looking forward to establishing that chess gambling ring in the plaza of Athens...

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Sonderlich Die, welche sich "die Guten" heissen, fand ich als die giftigsten Fliegen: sie stechen in aller Unschuld, sie lügen in aller Unschuld; wie vermöchten sie, gegen mich--gerecht zu sein! ... Die Dummheit der Guten nämlich ist unergründlich. -- Friedrich Nietzsche, Also Sprach Zarathustra (7.19)
Is your semi-friendly moderator on the job? Find out!

That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my life.

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It's Difficult To Comprehend How Insane Some People Can Be. Especially When You're Insane.
just games or death, and were all out of death!

Man, that's so stupid it's not funny. I mean, how hard can it be to tell EVN from some stupid computer gambling game? It's not even possible to do real gambling on anything but a comp. That's just idiotic.

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"Hmm? Defense fleet? What defense fleet? I haven't seen any defense fleet around here. Just radioactive debris."-me
"If it's not on fire, it's a software problem"-Matthew Burch
Event Horizon 2 IOoooooooooh,Ahhhhhhhh!----Errrr....would you mind clicking on this link?

Hahaha!!

Let them try to ban computer games.

Oh the silly laws that some countries make up...

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"...For what we see now is only a shadow of things to come..."

So, the Greek Government has banned all video games in the country just to stop gambling? Even a 3 year old can tell the difference between slot machines and PoG, Gran Turismo, etc.

They might as well ban cars to prevent auto theft, and perhaps they should ban banks to stop bank robberies. If you would like to complain about this to the Greek Government, go to this address.
http://www.government.gr/government/gov/index_en.html

It contains email addresses of many departments of the Greek Government as well as the Prime Minister. I sent a complaint to the Prime Minister, because I'm not sure who is responsible for this BS law. I suppose that the ministry of Justice is partially responsible, but I felt like sending it to the PM.

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"If a soldier sweats in
boot camp, he won't
bleed in battle."

[This message has been edited by Tanis Half-Halo (edited 09-07-2002).]

Well, there is that pod race betting feature...

Amorya

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