President Trump, on Thursday, invoked his emergency powers to impose broad sanctions against anyone caught playing popular paper and pencil game tic-tac-toe, a move that effectively bans the game in the United States.
In the order, which takes effect in 15 days, any US citizen caught playing the game on US soil will be arrested for national security reasons.
For the more-than-200million Americans who regularly play the game, experts say that even drawing a tic-tac-toe box could place them in violation of the new law. The box, the design of which is similar to a swastika, has been designated a symbol of hate.
"While tic-tac-toe is being singled out in this executive order, other games such as Hangman and Battleships could come under scrutiny," said University of Notre Dame pencil and paper game professor, William Bird. "In fact, even the selling of pencils could be restricted for all U.S. citizens."
The White House says what makes tic-tac-toe (or naughts and crosses in the UK) so dangerous to US security has yet to be determined, but officials believe that the game, which originated in Egypt, is un-American, and as it was invented by 'foreigners', it is probably designed to trick Americans into thinking 'foreign', and could, possibly, turn players into 'communist, muslim, China-loving belligerents.'
