Gameboys Banished From Land of Olympics to Curb Gamblers' Passion

If you are going to Greece, leave your child's Gameboy or other portable console behind, or you may be jailed, because all electronic games - even the most innocuous - have been banned in an attempt to stem the Greek passion for gambling.

The penalties for being caught at it, in public or in private, are a fine of up to €75,000 (£42,850) and 12 months in jail.

"It's laughable," said Yiannis Markopoulos, the owner of an internet cafe in Athens. "Every game in the world has been prohibited. I'm not taking any chances. Even children are now criminally liable."

The Socialist government adopted the measure after numerous bar and arcade owners were found to have converted slot machines into illegal gambling machines.

Moreover, the Socialist MP Alekos Chrisanthakopoulos, who chairs a parliamentary committee on gambling, was caught on film earlier this year enjoying an illegal video game.

The government's spokesman, Christos Protopapas, said the cabinet did not distinguish between games "because it wanted a clean decision,and that decision is no electronic games".

Internet cafes which let their customers play on-line chess and other "dangerous mind games" are liable to be closed as well as fined.

Although Greeks are the keenest gamblers in the EU, spending an estimated £3.2m daily, gambling is allowed only in licensed casinos.

The ban has provoked widespread derision, not least because the games can still be legally bought and sold.

Gamblers have amassed thousands of signatures on an online protest, and fingers are on the buttons for a test case next week brought by an internet cafe owner who says he cannot erase the games from his computer.