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BGonline.org Forums
How many pro BG players?
Posted By: Robert Wachtel In Response To: How many pro BG players? (Joe Russell)
Date: Sunday, 17 March 2013, at 4:31 p.m.
Hmmm? Who said anything about hustling? Why use that term?
To answer your question: of course those of us who are able to win at gambling in one form or another have an obligation to be merciful and mindful of others' situations, to not take what you call "full advantage" of those who are in financial distress or cannot afford to lose what they want to wager. One way not to take full advantage, by the way, and one that I have employed quite extensively in my experience, is simply to allow oneself (if you play on credit)to be stiffed. If your counterparty is not comfortable with what they have lost, they will usually try not to pay you; and by simply acquiescing to that decision on their part, you put a natural governor on their financial pain.
You mention winning sports bettors, by which I think you mean people who are sharp enough to make money on line. You seem to feel, by some leap of logic that I do not follow, that they deserve the respect that you do not wish to extend to a full-advantage-taking backgammon player because they "do not directly see" and "cannot control" whom they beat. And this even though you concede that there must be some addicts -- and some, perhaps, with wives and as many as four children -- among their universe of victims.
But this hypothetical sports bettor does have a choice, of course: he can refuse to put himself in gambling situations where he cannot see or control whom he is taking advantage of. It would be hypocritical of him to consciously put himself in those situations and then protest that he is thereby relieved of the moral obligations that the live backgammon player faces.
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