Where is Roger Sharpe when you need him?

Whaaaaaaaa ???? I guess they will have to go across the border to Norway.

'Stachey to the rescue!
Maybe Black_Rose could fill in for him ('Stach-wise)..?
I don't know if BR could pull off Sharpe's squirm dance though...
'Blueberry Shine' to the rescue!

Yeah! It's the talk of the whole Cascadian pinball scene! Some of us are actually there right now! I imagine they're Not Happy with this at all!

Here's the formal announcement:
==================================================
Announcement about Balacs Pinball Party and IFPA8 World Pinball Championships

The National Gaming Board of Sweden informed us this Tuesday that the pinball tournaments Balacs Pinball Party and IFPA8 World Pinball Championships are illegal according to Swedish law, and thus we need a license to be able to run the tournaments. They also filed a report at the local police about the tournaments, and that they would be considered illegal if played without a license. We spent the Wednesday to collect all the documents from different sources needed for the application, and yesterday morning Stockholm Pinball (which is the legal entity in Sweden that have the closest connection to the tournaments) applied for this license. Normally the handling timeframe is one month, but the gaming board gave our application the highest priority and rapid treatment.

However, about two hours ago they informed us that they will not be able to make the decision in time for this weekend (since they closed about two hours ago). This means that we cannot run the Balacs Pinball Party tournament this weekend without breaking the law. They also requested additional information from us, and we are now working on providing them with this information. They will continue to work on our application Monday morning, and well before that we will have given them the information requested. We still have hope that we can save the IFPA8 tournament without having to postpone or cancel the tournament.

The National Gaming Board of Sweden have also informed us that winning prizes consisting of money or having a value of money at pinball tournaments are not allowed by Swedish law. The IFPA World Pinball Championships will thus not pay out any prizes. If the gaming board will grant us a license, we will have to play for the honor and glory alone. Information about the outcome of the application, and the economical consequences for the participants, will be announced as soon as we know how things will turn out.

Regards
/Patrik Bodin
IFPA Country Director, Sweden
[email protected]
====================================================

Great, now I have to cancel my plane tickets and hotel room reservations.

How about using any and all monetary "prizes"/entry fees as donations to the charity of the winners choices ? Charity is not illegal nor is a permit or license needed for a fundraising event (advertise it as such .. a fundraiser for charity not a tournament). Places do that here in the US all the time so as not to be illegal gambling venues. I hope you get things worked out. I have a close lady friend in Stavanger (Sandnes) Norway who often visits Sweden.

And I thought things were getting bad in the US. How dare they take pinball...I would like the government here to try that...PINHEADS UNITE!!!

That's terrible! Why has pinball been so misunderstood for so long?