GREEK AUTHORITIES
BAN COMPUTER GAMES
Copyright 2002 www.theregister.co.uk
[ September 3rd 2002 ]
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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