Gamers face jail in Greece

NEWS 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. Internet cafes are allowed to continue to operate, providing all gaming is prohibited: if a client is found to be running any sort of game, including online chess, the café owner will be fined and the place closed. The law applies equally to visitors from abroad: "If you know these things are banned, you should not bring them in," said the commercial attaché at the Greek Embassy in London -- who declined to give her name. 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. A test case is to come before the Greek courts next week, and the Greek gaming community is already planning protests in the event that the defendant is convicted. "We are trying to organise a protest against this law," said Petros Tipis of Thessaloniki-based gaming company Reload Entertainment, which has had to cancel a gaming tournament that was to be held this week. If the prosecution of the defendant next week is successful, said Tipis, the Greek gaming industry will take the case to the European Court. In the meantime, Tipis told ZDNet UK, a lot of people in Greece are very worried about the new law. "They are taking it very seriously," he said. "It even affects the games that come with Windows. This law isn't the right one," he added. "It is unfair. It was introduced too quickly." Reload's tournament, which was to be held on 6 September, was a qualifier for the CPL Oslo 2002 gaming tournament. "Now we are trying not to lose the two slots we were given from CPL for the tournament," said Tipis. "This was the first time for a qualifier (for this tournament) in Greece." For further information on this story, see Rupert Goodwins' column: No fun, no games, as Greece takes a gamble.

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Talkback

Your article is no way related to the truth, any law that has been passed on that subject is related only to electronic gambling. But I can comprehended that some time interests rise above truth.

You should be ashamed that you have distorted truth in that way.

21 Apr 04 22:27 Reply

Give me just a name of any single person of greek or of any other nationality who was fined for carrying a mobile phone or his favourite console in Greece...For your own information the law pertains only to certain internet cafes and the "illegal"(disgrace!) coin machines.We still play ps2,go for counter strike every afternoon and no communistic or facistic kind of goverment invades our home to fine us for having a pc and hundrends of games!!I mean give some some credit to the country that taught the world,including your ancestors,what democracy means.So much disformation from your article makes me doubt the solvency of the writers.I cant but feel sorry for the "decadence" image of my country your article promotes.Just pls do your research beforehand for the good of your readers.

1 Oct 04 01:14 Reply

I'm a very hardcore gamer and if what u say is true than they arent human. I highly doubt they dont let u play games. If they wont let u play a simple game like fire emblem: the sacred stones for gba (fav game) then thats as cruel as slavery, but like I wrote earlier what u are claiming is unbelievable and highly doubtfull.

8 Jun 05 19:13 Reply

o and get the facts before u start posting things and about my occupation I didnt mean I live in america. I am america and now america hates u for posting such a thing.

8 Jun 05 19:17 Reply

I apologize america really doesn't hate u. please dont bomb america for me saying that. XD. I'm actually 13 years old.

8 Jun 05 19:21 Reply

WTF?!! Is the Greek Government suffering from some mental disease or something? Wow!

12 Jul 05 09:23 Reply

This is fucking stupid.

12 Jul 05 14:25 Reply

This brings to mind the time when books and people were burnt. Ignorance + power = destroy things you don't understand. Europeans, do something about this.

12 Jul 05 16:45 Reply

Im pretty much speachless... I don't know what on earth would possess a government to completely ban electronic gaming. Then again, I'm not Greek, so I dont know the culture.. perhaps gaming isn't very popular. It still seems insane to me to outlaw something, that in North America, is more popular than books.

12 Jul 05 18:18 Reply

evil. just plain evil.

12 Jul 05 19:25 Reply

This sucks...

12 Jul 05 20:13 Reply

greece should really catch up with the modern world and realize that gaming is something very importatnt. for one game developers will lose jobs, people who sell the games, like vendors will lose jobs, wtf not even microsoft windows games? ... whats next those fucktarts are gonna ban sex?

13 Jul 05 01:22 Reply

isn't there some sort of violation to arrest and fine tourists that have no idea about the law that visit Greece? Doesn't the Greek government know that Windows come with games pre-installed? What bullshit.

13 Jul 05 03:15 Reply

you have to be kidding me about this ! this is unreal, I can't beleive it.I have a son that is 7 and we vacation in Greece and his gameboy is what makes happy at times when he is missing the things he is used to back in the us ,and a handheld gameboy that is not plugged into a phone jack and he is 7 so he not playing gambleing games I think he should be allowed to sit quietly with earphones so not to distract anyone else and play his game.I would possible expect this from another country or time but not from Greece,I can understand possibly the online gambeling but GAMEBOY COME ON!!!!!!!!

13 Jul 05 04:26 Reply

holy....frigging....crap, am i ever glad they lifted this. who the hell decided this? Prolly some dumb-ass polictician who lots all his money at like....the Mount Olympus Casino and got really bitter.

13 Jul 05 04:32 Reply

best law ever

13 Jul 05 05:06 Reply

anyone want to come to my LAN party in Athens?

13 Jul 05 05:07 Reply

I do not believe that there is a normal person with logical IQ who believes that is article is true.
I am afraid that the person who has write this atricle must have an IQ of 10 maximum maybe 12.

14 Jul 05 11:58 Reply

Really tho...the only thing sadder than this article is the number of people who ::apparently:: believed it.....mental head slap.....

I mean come on people lets not believe everything we read on the Internet/in the newspaper/see on TV. Don't you think there would be a revolt or something?

Then again, in my country, they passed a law allegedly keeping kids in school, but instead use it to require schools to report the names/Social Security numbers of their students to Selective Services. And nobody really said shit. Except Barbra Boxer. She rocks.

Go CALIFORNIA!!!!!!!!!!

16 Jul 05 01:39 Reply

Can you say Nazi. the nazi party started by banning swing music so whats next in greece rounding up jews?

22 Jul 05 20:29 Reply

the article is wrong.... ask someone from greece and you will know....

8 Aug 05 16:04 Reply

This is the most lame and stupid thing I have ever heard.
Fair enough the nation trying to remove illegal gaming and gambling from its society, but placing a total ban all gaming products etc is out of this worldly stupid.

Your talking about making it illegal to carry a 99.9% of modern mobile phones, any kind of media player, games console or portable device outside of your own home.

Yes, if this is true, they will make an awful lot of money out of this purely from the fines they'll get from tourists, but they really are stupid to think that anyone is going to holiday there anymore, and it'll probably be soon that there own people turn against them!

29 Nov 05 13:16 Reply

this law is retarded i was going on vacation in greece this summer now i can't how can you have a vacation without a GameBoy(c)

6 Dec 05 19:32 Reply

well there goes my vacation to greece

19 Dec 05 06:44 Reply

Bullturd, sure. I doubt you will be able to run cs without a greek officar watching (unless he is a "1337" gamer).

24 Dec 05 00:09 Reply

this is stupid let them go now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

23 Feb 06 14:32 Reply

I would like to know whether Law # 3037, banning computer games in Greece has still been effective up to now. Anyone could give me a reliable source for this piece of information?

7 Apr 06 15:02 Reply