Subject: [issue] Cheating: Short and Sweet
Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 01:35:45 -0700
From: "Noel Johnson" <lestatv@blarg.net>
To: <fkusumot@ix.netcom.com>

    Cheaters should be banned.  Period.  A person engaging in cheating is
willfully comitting an act that degrades the very fabric of the activity in
which he is participating.  No, "Oh, he just gets a warning" crap.  If
someone is proven to have intentionally cheated... GONE!

    The DCI should take cheating as seriously as pro-sports take
accusations of their games being fixed, or their refs being corrupt.  It
rocks the very foundation of the game because it compromises everyone's
faith that the game is genuine.  If no one belives that the game can be
played and won by honest competition, than eventually everyone will cease
playing.  This is why Pete Rose was banned from baseball.  The possibility
of someone with influence betting on an outcome, one way or the other, can
compromise the fan's belief that the games are genuine, and thus they will
cease to buy tickets.

    I was confronted with a cheater once.  After trying to reason with the
guy, I called a judge over to overlook the game. The judge indeed agreed
that the guy had drawn an extra card.  He issued a warning.  I was
disgusted, and in response to his warning I conceded the game, and walked
out.  You should have seen the look on the judge's face.  I was just pissed
off at the time, and was thinking along the lines of "Well, if you aren't
going to do anything about this, than you will lose the honest players and
be destined to root in a game with the cheaters that you refuse to oust."

    Next time I catch a cheater, if there isn't something satisfactorally
done about it, I will respond by conceeding, and then punching the guy in
the larynx.  Hard.  I find that catches people completely unexpected.

-Noel Johnson
lestatv@blarg.com