60 Poker Players Arrested in Cyprus

Thursday August 2,2012 : POKER PLAYERS ARRESTED IN CYPRUS CONFUSION
 
Bureaucratic bungling on a grand scale send the police after practicing poker players
 
Embarrassing bureaucratic bungling is believed to be at the root of a a shocking series of arrests on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus last week in which over 60 poker players were briefly detained.
 
Those arrested in a series of police raids across the island were members of the Cyprus Poker Association who were not only practising for an international poker event, but were not even playing for real money!
 
CPA spokesman Antonis Theophanides told the Cyprus Mail that the Association was holding the games in order to select 10 top players to represent the island at the Nations Cup competition scheduled for London in September.
 
Fuelling the indignation of those involved is the fact that the Association sent highly detailed explanations on the exercise, and the dates and places matches would be taking place, to the police, the attorney general, the interior minister and the president of the Cyprus sports federation….three weeks in advance of the cards hitting the air!
 
Adding insult to injury, a conversation was also held with a police representative who told the Association it was good to go on the project.
 
With the furore still building and the media now interested in the outcome, the police are reportedly investigating.