Gambling ban fails to convince a jaded public
The government’s conviction that imposing a blanket ban on all electronic games will combat illegal gambling is not shared by the Greek public – at least if the results of yesterday’s newspaper poll on the subject are to be believed. Only half (50.4 percent) of the poll’s respondents – interviewed in Athens and Thessaloniki by Focus AEE on behalf of the Sunday Eleftherotypia – said the government was right in imposing the blanket ban with nearly as many (44.6 per cent) saying the ban should have applied to slot machines only. There was equal skepticism regarding the impact of the ban, with only 9.3 percent convinced it would eradicate illegal gambling, 48.8 percent saying the scourge would briefly subside before resurfacing and 41.8 percent convinced the ban would have no effect. The highest statistic is perhaps the most telling – 90.4 percent believe Greeks are naturally drawn toward gambling.
