Law 3037/2002, the Greek law that temporarily "banned all video games in Greece" in 2002

[Vetusomaru]

Some of you probably know the infamous Law 3037/2002, a temporary Greek law that was enforced in 2002 and temporarily banned all video games in Greece. This law in question was supposed to ban illegal gambling at internet cafes and modified arcade cabinets (SOMEHOW they had no problem with legal gambling despite the fact that many people were losing their fortunes and destroying their lives because of them). The problem was that the law was so badly written that it implied that it banned all forms of video games instead. In action this law only affected arcades (until they dropped the law years later after a huge fine by EU) and for a short period the internet cafes. You could still buy, sell and play every other kind of video games (PC games, consoles games etc) without any problem.

More details about this video games ban at my blog article:

The Greek law that temporarily banned video games in Greece in 2002

VIDEO GAMES BAN IN GREECE IN 200229 July 2002: The Greek government under the ruling of the party PASOK (a socialist party that among others was responsible for the Greek stock market crash of 1999 and the economic crisis and debt in Greece at the late 2000s) passed a new, ridiculous...

vetusomaru.blog.fc2.com

 

[Tonberry]

Wow, I've never heard of this before but that's really interesting, and weird.
How did it manage to be so poorly written that it banned video games?

Tangentially related; Where I'm from, "spel" means game, but in older circles its related to gambling more than video games. When I was in high-school (I went to a nerdy tech-oriented high school) there was a big push one time to have some guys come and have a lecture on "games addiction". The thing nobody bothered to look up was that he was an old guy talking about gambling addiction, so every single student who was at the lecture was extremely perplexed, because none gambled.

 

[ShinnAsukaYESTaylorSwiftNO]

crud like this is why bureaucracy should be dismantled

 

[Vetusomaru]

Wow, I've never heard of this before

Because it's an old, obscure video game ban and there aren't any detailed videos or articles about it. There aren't any conversations about it at forums either except a few ancient ones from early 2000s and threads I opened myself at both English and Greek. Which is why I made that article myself (it still needs a huge edit to add more details and improve the writing). If it wasn't for the fact that it got a place to Guinness Book, it would be even more obscure.

How did it manage to be so poorly written that it banned video games?

Because Greek politicians are useless idiots. To give you an idea about how useless they are: for the head of the Cyber Crime Division in Greece we had a boomer that doesn't know shit about computers and internet.

 

[fake-kun]

That reminds me of that video game console ban China used to have (or still has, I can't remember off the bat). Nonetheless, Nintendo managed to sell Nintendo 64 there by rebranding it as iQue Player plug'n'play.

 

[Vetusomaru]

That reminds me of that video game console ban China used to have. Nonetheless, Nintendo managed to sell Nintendo 64 there by rebranding it as iQue Player plug'n'play.

China generally is weird when it comes to video games laws. Then again China's laws generally are fucked up (thank you, communism).

 

[Swadloon]

Some of you probably know the infamous Law 3037/2002, a temporary Greek law that was enforced in 2002 and temporarily banned all video games in Greece. This law in question was supposed to ban illegal gambling at internet cafes and modified arcade cabinets (SOMEHOW they had no problem with legal gambling despite the fact that many people were losing their fortunes and destroying their lives because of them). The problem was that the law was so badly written that it implied that it banned all forms of video games instead. In action this law only affected arcades (until they dropped the law years later after a huge fine by EU) and for a short period the internet cafes. You could still buy, sell and play every other kind of video games (PC games, consoles games etc) without any problem.

More details about this video games ban at my blog article:

The Greek law that temporarily banned video games in Greece in 2002

VIDEO GAMES BAN IN GREECE IN 200229 July 2002: The Greek government under the ruling of the party PASOK (a socialist party that among others was responsible for the Greek stock market crash of 1999 and the economic crisis and debt in Greece at the late 2000s) passed a new, ridiculous...

vetusomaru.blog.fc2.com

Lol, this is pure comedy gold

Post automatically merged: Feb 9, 2025

That reminds me of that video game console ban China used to have (or still has, I can't remember off the bat). Nonetheless, Nintendo managed to sell Nintendo 64 there by rebranding it as iQue Player plug'n'play.

Also exists a iQue GBA, iQue DS & a iQue 3DS

 

[Vetusomaru]

Lol, this is pure comedy gold

It is if you weren't a Greek gamer back then.

 

[Swadloon]

I can perfectly imagine the FBI equivalent in Greece arresting some random kid in the street for playing Mario on an GBA. This could perfectly be the plot of a some episode of an adult comedy show. ?

 

[Vetusomaru]

I can perfectly imagine the FBI equivalent in Greece arresting some random kid in the street for playing Mario on an GBA. This could perfectly be the plot of a some episode of an adult comedy show. ?

This is exactly what foreign journalists assumed back then and warned tourists about. But in reality the only arrests they've made were arcade centers and internet cafes owners. I think they've also arrested a few internet cafe customers back then but I don't remember. Every other forms of video games (PCs, consoles, phone games etc) were still sold legally with zero arrests.

 

[Swadloon]

This is exactly what foreign journalists assumed back then and warned tourists about. But in reality the only arrests they've made were arcade centers and internet cafes owners. I think they've also arrested a few internet cafe customers back then but I don't remember. Every other forms of video games (PCs, consoles, phone games etc) were still sold legally with zero arrests.

I know, I read the post, but still imagining that. Sorry for the confusion

 

[Vetusomaru]

I know, I read the post, but still imagining that. Sorry for the confusion

I know that you were just joking, don't worry. Still what you wrote as a joke is what journalists actually falsely claimed. Which is why many foreign people even today assume that people were indeed get arrested back then for playing Game Boy. Of course I can't blame foreign people for not knowing that since it's an old, obscure law. But I blame journalists for not doing a proper search before making up bullshit.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

SUPER interesting!

I had never heard about that.

Thanks for sharing!

 

[Vetusomaru]

I'm glad you like it. Unfortunately I don't know how to make videos (and too lazy to learn) so I would make a related video at YouTube.

 

[RanmyakuIchi's icon RanmyakuIchi RanmyakuIchi]

"This is the Greek FBI, put your hands in the air and back away from the Super Nintendo!"

 

[Abecero]

No law in the universe ain't gonna stop me from playing what I want to play.

I can perfectly imagine the FBI equivalent in Greece arresting some random kid in the street for playing Mario on an GBA. This could perfectly be the plot of a some episode of an adult comedy show. ?

Now Nintendo themselves does that for real if they find out you were playing a game of theirs in a way they don't approve, lol.

 

[Vetusomaru]

No law in the universe ain't gonna stop me from playing what I want to play.


Now Nintendo themselves does that for real if they find out you were playing a game of theirs in a way they don't approve, lol.

It's not just Nintendo but other companies too like Crapcom that ban all "problematic" video games mods but give a free pass to many other video games mods.

Post automatically merged: Feb 10, 2025

No law in the universe ain't gonna stop me from playing what I want to play.

Say that to Chinese citizens, especially the underage ones with the draconian laws about video games like how many hours the Chinese players spend on video games.

 

[Abecero]

It's not just Nintendo but other companies too like Crapcom that ban all "problematic" video games mods but give a free pass to many other video games mods.

Post automatically merged: Feb 10, 2025

Say that to Chinese citizens, especially the underage ones with the draconian laws about video games like how many hours the Chinese players spend on video games.

I meant more the "sue you for life then throw you to jail" kinda thing with nintendo, but them scumpanies going after mod is scummy too.

As for your second thing: