Topic: Greeks Ban Fun
started by: TheTaxMan
Posted by TheTaxMan on Jul. 06 2002,05:43
< Interesting >.
Posted by forumwhore on Jul. 06 2002,05:47
Greek ban on gaming threatens Internet cafesBy John Lettice
Posted: 04/07/2002 at 12:49 GMT
A Register reader in Greece emails us claiming that the Greek government has effectively outlawed Internet cafes by "all LAN and Internet games and any kind of game that is supported by electrical, electronic or software means." If anybody so much as has something looking like a game on the screen, he tells us, the cafe manager is liable for arrest.
All of this makes some kind of perverted sense. Computers in Internet cafes are gaming machines, sort of. Or at least they have that potential, and Greece has already shown signs of considering them as such. More recently, Greece banned all amusement and gambling machines, including the likes of Pac Man.
You pay for computers in Internet cafes, you can play games on them, so yes, there you go. And a little further research leads us to believe that Greece's position is maybe not so wildly eccentric as one might initially think. Here in the UK one does have to pay duty on gaming and amusement machines in public places. You can get a little more information about the position by tearing through this section of the 1995 Finance Act, but frankly we do not recommend it.
It would however seem logical to us for Internet cafe machines playing games to be classed somewhere within the amusement machines category, and therefore liable for duty. If they're not, then pubs installing computers instead of amusement machines could be on to a good wrinkle. So, some form of cafe tax? OK, but what, then, are we going to do about all of those people in pubs who'll sometime soon be whipping out their 3G phones in order to play online games?
In Greece, obviously, they'll just arrest the nearest bar manager, while in London's West End we foresee a variation on traffic wardens slapping Internetting Tickets on careless mobile gamers...
Posted by TheTaxMan on Jul. 06 2002,05:56
Yes, that is an exact replica of what is on the link....
Posted by forumwhore on Jul. 06 2002,06:03
We have the bandwidth, sir.I didn't know if it would work with all those links in the text.
Mr TM, I'm not deliberately trying to harass you at all.
If you like, I'll remove these posts.
I looked at your email again and I wondered if I was being a jerk.
What do you think?
Posted by forumwhore on Jul. 06 2002,06:05
goddamanother fucking Scorpio.
Posted by Dysorderia on Jul. 06 2002,17:27
| Quote (forumwhore @ 06 July 2002,01:03) |
| We have the bandwidth, sir. |
so what?
just because you can use something doesn't mean you need to.
Where would we all be if the USA fired off all the nukes they had, just because they could?
Posted by forumwhore on Jul. 06 2002,18:40
Apples and oranges there.All I was thinking is why post a link when you can post the page?
Posted by Vigilante on Jul. 07 2002,01:57
We'd be neck-deep in nuclear winter, which is just fine with me. Fucking 98F heat index... 