Cuba Bans PC Sales, Greece Bans Video Games

GMontag writes: "From the Wired article -- 'The Cuban government has quietly banned the sale of computers and computer accessories to the public, except in cases where the items are "indispensable" and the purchase is authorized by the Ministry of Internal Commerce.' Sounds like the MPAA is making inroads into Cuba. Opposition view at CubaNet." Greece, meanwhile, has banned all arcade games in an effort to stop illegal gambling." (Thanks, MediaBoy77.)

Comments

Re:Gambling (Greece and elsewhere)

[leviramsey]

Of course, as John Stossel once pointed out, most state governments in the US heavily restrict gambling except under certain circumstances, then run lotteries and encourage their citizens to play. Silly and hypocritical, at best.

There's a reason that sports betting is illegal in most of the US: it would destroy the state lotteries. The typical state lottery has a vig of 50-60% (In Massachusetts, 50% of each ticket is tax and c.10% is taken to cover administrative expenses; only 40% of the take is distributed to winners... thus you have to win 2.5 times more than luck would dictate to break even).

Contrast with a sports book. Assuming standard Vegas odds, the vig is less than 5%, since the payouts are 11-10. In order to break even in sports betting, you only need to be 4-5% better than dumb luck.

It almost makes me wonder if we'd all be better off if the Mafia ran the US... it can't be worse than being run by the RIAA/MPAA... ;o)