Greek Gamers Are Angry
Greek gamers must be pretty angry right now. Check this out.
"Thousands of British tourists in Greece are unknowingly facing heavy fines or long terms in prison for owning mobile phones or portable video games. The Greek government has banned all electronic games across Greece, including those in home computers, Game Boy-style portable consoles, and on mobile phones.
Law Number 3037, enacted at the end of July, explicitly forbids electronic games with 'electronic mechanisms and software' from public and private places, and people have already been fined tens of thousands of Euros for playing or owning games.
The law was passed to prevent illegal gambling. According to the Greek newspaper Kathimerini, "The police will be responsible for catching offenders, who will face fines of 5,000 to 75,000 Euros and imprisonment of one to 12 months. The blanket ban was decided in February after the government admitted it was incapable of distinguishing innocuous video games from illegal gambling machines." One online report said that even watching a film on DVD -- many of which contain promotional games linked to the movie -- had resulted in an arrest and a 10,000-euro fine.
The Greek gaming community has reacted with a mixture of shock, disbelief and anger. One site, www.gameland.gr, has opened a petition and a news service on the ban, as well as providing English translations of the law and messages of support from around the world." Full article here.
Wow, kind of harsh don't ya think? I would move countries! They can't take away a game because of gambling! Maybe games that you can gamble with would be better to take. You could make the argument that every online game is, but not any of the single player! Unless of course you are doing high-scores. I would be playing games in my house on my computer. If an official dude comes to my door, I exit the game, and make sure that it is hidden under a different file name with some other software.
Either way, I feel for the Greek.
"Thousands of British tourists in Greece are unknowingly facing heavy fines or long terms in prison for owning mobile phones or portable video games. The Greek government has banned all electronic games across Greece, including those in home computers, Game Boy-style portable consoles, and on mobile phones.
Law Number 3037, enacted at the end of July, explicitly forbids electronic games with 'electronic mechanisms and software' from public and private places, and people have already been fined tens of thousands of Euros for playing or owning games.
The law was passed to prevent illegal gambling. According to the Greek newspaper Kathimerini, "The police will be responsible for catching offenders, who will face fines of 5,000 to 75,000 Euros and imprisonment of one to 12 months. The blanket ban was decided in February after the government admitted it was incapable of distinguishing innocuous video games from illegal gambling machines." One online report said that even watching a film on DVD -- many of which contain promotional games linked to the movie -- had resulted in an arrest and a 10,000-euro fine.
The Greek gaming community has reacted with a mixture of shock, disbelief and anger. One site, www.gameland.gr, has opened a petition and a news service on the ban, as well as providing English translations of the law and messages of support from around the world." Full article here.
Wow, kind of harsh don't ya think? I would move countries! They can't take away a game because of gambling! Maybe games that you can gamble with would be better to take. You could make the argument that every online game is, but not any of the single player! Unless of course you are doing high-scores. I would be playing games in my house on my computer. If an official dude comes to my door, I exit the game, and make sure that it is hidden under a different file name with some other software.
Either way, I feel for the Greek.
posted by AC-91 at 3:59 PM
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