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BGonline.org Forums
EUBGF News: Tournament Rules and Statutes
Posted By: Colin Owen In Response To: EUBGF News: Tournament Rules and Statutes (Jason Lee)
Date: Sunday, 7 February 2016, at 8:12 p.m.
Firstly, I firmly believe that the primary, if not sole motivation behind the introduction of dice cups in backgammon (and probably other games) is that they reduce both the incidence of cheating and the suspicion of it. Yes, they facilitate the generation of random numbers BUT, between two totally honest players - who also totally TRUST each other - the only function they would perform is, perhaps, to save some time on shaking. The presumption of automatic guilt, as you describe it with the right to disallow headphones, is very much there too in the requirement to use dice cups, and the right to insist upon lipped ones - which not all cups are - very much emphasises this. Using cups - even lipped ones - do not ensure random rolls of course, but they facilitate in making the process of a fair game to be more transparent. Using headphones has exactly the opposite effect to this - unless that equipment, and the sound that they produce - are carefully checked and verified by staff. That is not, I believe, a process that routinely (if ever) takes place, and could be an onerous and time consuming one to perform. Insisting upon lipped cups and proper shaking and rolling techniques implies a 'presumption of guilt' no less than would the disallowing of headphones.
You state that you never consider even the possibility that an opponent wearing headphones might be cheating. It is a safe bet however that, on a subliminal level, you do; I trust you would not be so naive as to truly believe that players never cheat in our game, nor to believe that it's not possible with headphones. It could be simply the repeating of doubling windows, MET's and so on, or perhaps even working with XG through an accomplice. The fact that we may not be aware of even any accusations of cheating with headphones in our game should strengthen our confidence that they are not being abused, but this should be tempered with the knowledge that - in the absence of routine checking procedures - it would be very hard to detect, and any player suspicious of an opponent will be loathe to make his doubts public. I'm sorry that you believe that the use of headphones amounts to transparent behaviour.
Drop a deuce: I have never heard it called that before! Why would I be offended at your monitoring request? I truly believe in acting transparently. I imagine staff might decline it though.
FWIW I accept it may be that, in all the cases that headphones were used in bg events, this privelige might never have been abused. But we don't know that's the case, nor that it will be so in the future and, certainly, I believe beyond a doubt that it is possible.
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