Greece Bans All Computer Gaming!!!!

[Guru]

What's This All About?

There are gaming arcades and the like in Greece. Some of these arcade games are being used for gambling purposes (which is something not unheard of in the USA, either).

I guess it's too hard for the police to figure this out, so the Greek Parliament banned all gaming, public, private, Internet-based, you name it. Here's an English translation of the law. You can see stories on this here and here.

I initially thought this might have been somebody getting overexcited about it, but this forum has posts from Greek gamers saying people are getting busted for playing Counterstrike and that gaming tournaments are being cancelled due to this new law.

http://www.overclockers.com/tips00103/

[Paddy]

muppets

[ZokesPro]

retarded

[mutz]

...well, the real power in Greece is held by the Greek Orthodox priests, so it's probably a "moral" issue. Corruption of youth and whatnot. Most countries are "free" only in the sense of liberty.

And no, the Greek police are not particularly bright. The only diffence between a policeman and a thug is which side of the law he's standing on.

My girlfriend is going to Corfu tomorrow for two weeks, but she's not a gamer so I guess she won't get locked up, but thanks, I'll tell her to give arcades and Internet cafe's a wide birth.

[Technoid]

When you think you have heard it all.....

[Elie]

My wife is greek and so are a few friends of mine, guess what, she hates it when I make fun of them, now I have a very good reason too, thanks!

Cheers,
Elie

[Wombat]

In other news, Greek sheep are quivering in fear as the majority of the Greecian male population suddenly has a lot more free time.

[Guru]

Originally posted by Wombat
In other news, Greek sheep are quivering in fear as the majority of the Greecian male population suddenly has a lot more free time.

ROFLMAO!

[KvHagedorn]

Maybe they have the same moronic law they had in some town in the USA, namely that you have to take an IQ test to be a policeman, and if you score too high, you can't be one. Yes, it's true. There is a maximum IQ requirement. Why? Well, the "official" reason was that "smart people would become bored with the drudgery of police work."

The truth is probably that the low-IQ higher-ups in the police department had felt threatened by some smart young recruit, and being painfully aware of their inferiority, moved to prevent further "threats."

[mutz]

...in my experience, that's not only true of police departments...

[Dr Mordrid]

Guess that trip to the Athens Olympics is off. No way am I going to clear the laptop of everything that'll keep my kid from ricocheting off the walls during downtime

Dr. Mordrid

[Agent31]

what a bunch of donuts!

[KvHagedorn]

Originally posted by mutz
...in my experience, that's not only true of police departments...

Mine too..

[thop]

right on i say! computer games are the root of all evil!

go greece, go greece!

[Admiral]

I can understand that thing about gambling in the arcade.
We also have it here, some poker machines and stuff like that, you give some money they turn on the credits on the machine (that amount of money's worth that amount of credits and all) and at the end if you're lucky you cash out. But we're not talking about significant sums.
And what connection does it have with the rest of the machines in the arcade, running Mortal Kombat x, PacMan... ?
Further more, what connection does it have with net cafes ?
And last, but not least, what's it got to do with home gaming ?

I know there's a moral issue with kids skipping school and going to arcades and net cafes, but hey, if you're having issues with gambling machines and gaming in public places you can always set an age limit.
This is too stupid to be true.