Busted! Plaza's Ms. Pac-Man game seized by the state

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• Your tax dollars at work

OK, so this is a bummer. Your days of playing Galaga while waiting for the midnight show of Rocky Horror to start could be over, thanks to state revenooers.

This past Tuesday, officers from the Georgia Department of Revenue showed up at the Plaza Theatre and seized all eight of the venerable cinema's vintage arcade games for "vending law violations."

While "seized" is, technically, the correct legal term, the tax cops didn't physically remove the machines. For now, they're all still sitting in the Plaza lobby, but they've been unplugged and tagged with stickers that threaten dire consequences to anyone foolish enough to peel 'em off. (Go on, we dare ya!)

What's all this about? Well, it turns out the machines were lacking stickers showing that permit fees had been paid — similar to the tag stickers we have to buy for our car license plates every time our birthday rolls around. Or, as Plaza owner Jonathan Rej puts it: "You've got to give the government its cut."