“It’s only being a cheater if you’re discovered.”
It’s not clear who first said that It could be Al Bundy, a lazy yet adored shoe salesman on the television show “Married … with Children,” nearly 30 years back. Al was quoted as saying that when he cheated his way into an event against elderly people and getting a trophy.
Americans are likely to be fascinated by rascals and rebels who buck the law so long as they’re amusing. In the comical Al Bundy might make us smile, but we’re not amused when actual competitors get too far from rules-bending to completely fraud.
We’re adamant that fair play is the norm. This is why we’re shocked when we hear about the seven-time Tour De France cycling winner Lance Armstrong’s admission of doping and his involvement in the Houston Astros’ elaborate baseball fraud schemes of 2017 as well as figure skater Tonya Harding requesting a kneecap hit on her main opponent, Nancy Kerrigan.
This is the reason we’re so disturbed by recent reports of real and suspected cheating at smaller tournaments that involve the game of chess, fishing, and poker.
Hook, Line and Lead Weights
The first topic is fish-cheats. On October. 12th, an Cuyahoga County (Ohio) grand jury indicted two individuals with multiple charges of having have cheated during a recent walleye tournament in Lake Erie by stuffing lead weights into their fish.
Jacob Runyan and Chase Cominsky were able to win nearly $30k in prizes and cash at the Lake Erie Walleye Trail Championship earlier this month. They were accused of cheating during the past, and during the weigh-in of at the Lake Erie competition, tournament director Jason Fischer was skeptical of the weight of the fish. After that, he prodded the fishes stomachs before cutting open the fish to expose the contents that were illegal, which comprised of lead balls and walleye fillets.
If found guilty, Runyan and Cominsky could receive up to one year of prison time and fines as high as $2500 for the three serious accusations.
Gambling of Suspicion
The world of chess is abuzz with the alleged cheating scandal centers on the 19-year-old grandmaster Hans Niemann, who defeated Norwegian grandmaster Magnus Carlsen at the Sinquefield Cup in the month of June. Niemann acknowledged that he had used electronic devices to cheat online games when younger but has never been caught cheating during the “over the board” (OTB) game.
Still, suspicions persist. In September. 26 Carlsen expressed his conviction that Niemann might be cheating as well as on October. 4 Chess.com published a 72-page document claiming that Niemann had cheated on over 100 games online and greater than what he has admitted to.
Online cheating could occur by receiving advice on moves via a computer software program, referred to as the chess engine. The way in which the chess players could utilize the chess engine during the course of an OTB game isn’t clear. There’s been speculation suggesting that the player might use an electronic device to signal (we’ll allow you to find out what it was that he kept the device) However, in the initial stage at the U.S. Chess Championship in St. Louis in the middle of this month intense scanning equipment have found Niemann clean.
All In
The controversy over poker has been a livestreamed high-stakes game featuring a prize of $269,000 and the claim from an experienced players Garrett Adelstein that a relative newcomer Robbie Jade Lew, cheated to win the money. The basis of the claim is that Lew was able to win through taking the gamble “all into” by playing a poor hand. This is a tactic which very few players think of making.
In a lengthy post, Adelstein explained his suspicions and suggested that one method to cheat in live streaming poker could be by having any kind of device which tells the player if they’ve got the highest hands, although the tweet didn’t say that Lew was involved in this.
A fascinating twist may be difficult to grasp, however following a dispute after the match, Lew later agreed to take back Adelstein’s portion part of the winnings. In the meantime, the live-streaming program, Hustler Casino Live, announced that it was hiring an investigation firm by law to determine how the incident occurred.
Lessons?
In the end what do we learn in these scandals about fraud and fraud? If the person you’re talking about is Hans Niemann or Robbi Jade Lew, it’s not going to really harm your image (at least, at least not currently. In the second, if you’re caught cheating there’s a chance you’ll be penalized however obviously, this is only in the event of being discovered.