Greek Anti-Gaming Laws Still Being Enforced

Gamaroo writes "An AFP report on Yahoo indicates that innocent Internet and gaming cafes in Greece are still being raided by police, despite the laws being ruled unconstitutional by the supreme court of the land. From the article: 'In a desperate attempt to clamp down on out-of-control illegal gambling, Greek parliament passed in 2002 a law that summarily banned all public gaming conducted by electronic and mechanical means. Said one man, 'They treat us like criminals,' said Aris Assimakopoulos, a 28-year old computer specialist who runs an internet cafe in downtown Athens. Policemen stormed Assimakopoulos' enterprise twice in January, threw out all clients, confiscated 50 PCs and arrested an employee.'"

Comments

Legalized Stealing?

[Locky]

' "These guys earn so much, that even when police catch them and confiscate their PCs, they can pay the fines and buy new material with just a single day's proceedings," Gusakis added.'

Wow, let the raids continue! Let justice ring clear! So long as they can afford it, its perfectly ok to steal computers?! Off to Walmart I go!

Real good logic there....

[MMaestro]

"The law is the law and we have to enforce it, even if it prevents us from pursuing our real aim, which is the fight against illegal gambling," an official at the Athens gaming police told AFP.

So the police are willing to spend thousands of dollars performing "raids" on public cybercafes just because their out in the open and obvious. Real smart there.

This is unlawful but, couldn't the police turn a blind eye on these cybercafes (the law abiding ones of course) and instead focus on the ones that promote/harbor/create/encourage illegal online gambling?

"These guys earn so much, that even when police catch them and confiscate their PCs, they can pay the fines and buy new material with just a single day's proceedings," Gusakis added.

Gee maybe its because they have to increase prices in order to replace the hardware you guys keep destroying? If I was running a car dealership and my cars kept getting confiscated and destroyed by the police, don't you think my prices would have to be pretty high?

Re:Real good logic there....

[MMaestro]

From the parent post : Get the courts to overturn it, and pass laws concentrating on the actual gambling.

From the news report : A draconian computer gaming ban enacted two years ago is still alive and kicking in Greece, despite a string of court decisions throwing it out as unconstitutional, the country's internet cafe owners complain.

As you can see, there ARE court decisions overruling the laws and letting the cybercafe owners get away with this. In the real world, however, this means still means squat in light of the fact that all your computer hardware (which is 99.9% of a cybercafe's investment) is destroyed from police confiscation, not to mention uncounted losses in profit. Until the laws fully get taken down, the cybercafe owners are gonna get screwed even if they get off the hook.

Define Game?

[Stray7Xi]

Game is such a vague word, because many innocent programs can be treated as a game.

Just try to find a cell phone that DOESN'T have games... that Ipod, oh that's illegal. Typing Tutor programs for schools, they probably contain games too... Oh and I doubt they intended to ban internet chess.

Then there's the borderline games. Can online paint programs be a game? MUDs are games, but are MUSH'es? What about chat rooms that people play AD&D in... When google had its online coding competition, does that make coding a game?

It even bans mechanical games... no pinball, no foosball, no airhockey. Is bowling a mechanical game? Hell there's mechanical games in summer olympics... skeet shooting, cycling and archery should all be canceled, arrest the competitors...

The question I have is why is Greece so different about gambling problems that they had it going underground? I understand they'd have video games hacked to be turned into gambling, but why isn't that a big problem in other countries? It seems to me that if people wanted to gamble they could travel to neighboring countries, Greece is in EU right?

An example of gov't efficiency?

[MachDelta]

Um... excuse me if this is a stupid question... but if courts across the land, including the supreme-motherfucking-court of your country rule a law as being "unconstitutional"... then how in the hell could it possibly remain in effect!?

Seems stupid. But maybe I just don't understand their laws. It is, after all, all greek to me! *Rimshot*.
*Ducks and runs*

two people so far have taken it out of context

[ReverendBobtheJunkie]

The quote taken out of context:
"These guys earn so much, that even when police catch them and confiscate their PCs, they can pay the fines and buy new material with just a single day's proceedings," Gusakis added.

This particular person, a cafe' owner, was talking about the illegal cafe's that are the REAL target of the police raids; the ones doing the illegal gambling, etc.; as evidencied when the entire discussion is re-read:

"Rather than combatting gambling, the law just seems to open the door to abuse of legitimate internet cafe owners. "Greece is full of phony internet cafes, opened by operators of banned gambling halls," Yiannis Gousakis, another internet cafe owner, told AFP.

"These guys earn so much, that even when police catch them and confiscate their PCs, they can pay the fines and buy new material with just a single day's proceedings," Gusakis added. "

I'm amazed that TWO slashdotters read what they wanted into this in less than 16 replies. Shame, shame, shame...

Maybe we could lend those poor cafe' owners some American lawyers; I'm sure a few successful lawsuits (or one successful and sufficiently giant class-action lawsuit) would get that law changed pretty darned fast.

The most annoying thing

[Dark Paladin]

You have the Greek supreme court who have ruled the law unconstitutional - yet the Athens police are still enforcing a law that they know will be aquitted. The article even mentions that the cases are all being aquitted, but still the police keep charging people with it at a waste of taxpayer money.

It makes you wonder what the real incentive of the Athens police is. Are they trying to put the Internet Cafes out of business? From their actions, it certainly sounds like it, and if makes you wonder if that's their central aim.

After all, if the legitimate gamers are out, then the only business in town will be illegal gaming.