| |
BGonline.org Forums
An ethics issue raised in Paris?
Posted By: Chuck Bower In Response To: An ethics issue raised in Paris? (Perry Gartner)
Date: Tuesday, 3 November 2009, at 5:31 p.m.
A good question, and knowing you, it wasn't asked without considerable contemplation.
You mentioned in your other post about the Paris tournament that one of the nice things about the dinner was the chance for players to socialize. In fact BG is a small enough community (even when players cross oceans to compete) that there is a huge advantage to knowing other players and directors, from a security standpoint. For example, on one or two occasions I've received what I considered a faulty ruling, but in those cases it was made by a director whose integrity I was confident met my high standards. Thus the thought of favoritism didn't enter my mind. However, having said that, it can be extremely difficult for ANY human to completely block out external factors -- thus your concern.
The alternatives I see are for Ray to not offer the cash gift, or for Chiva to refuse to accept it. However, one question that comes up for me is: "was this gift a positive for backgammon?" (Ray's intent from what I understand) and I think the answer there is pretty clearly 'yes'. So when you do the equity analysis (multiplying value times probability, then summing over all possible outcomes), even if there is a small probability that (subconsciously and certainly unintentionally) Ray receives favorable treatment at some time in the future, the net gain for backgammon is positive so it is worth the (very small, IMO) downside.
| |
BGonline.org Forums is maintained by Stick with WebBBS 5.12.