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Move directly to jail
The next words are DO NOT PASS GO and do not collect $200.00, or in the
case of Mr. Laurent Lakma $3 million dollars. For you may or may not have
read, or heard of a gentleman called Laurent Lakma who earlier this year was
found guilty of cheating at backgammon, no mean feat by all accounts but Mr.
Lakma cheated.
He was charged with Grand Larceny and given a custodial sentence of ten
years.
Now, although this particular report smacks of an urban myth or a very
clever piece of PR there is no doubting that the prize money in backgammon
has risen significantly to warrant such an attempt to cheat. Backgammon so
long the preserve of the traditionalists, has evolved into sophisticated
gaming and consequently attracts the trappings of all that are associated
with the lifestyle. These include the professionals; former bridge or Poker
players who have seen how backgammon has elevated itself beyond its humble
board game beginnings and who now play openly in online competitions for big
bucks. Additionally those with criminal intent also frequent those very same
sites that the more bonafide players do.
So there are at some sites a rogue's galleries of cheats or hustlers who
have blotted their backgammon copy books. Whilst the security measures that
protect the players and sites use the latest state of the art security, when
playing online it is not always possible to know who for sure you are
playing, some players cheat with their statistics, to try and give
themselves a lower ranking, in this way they are able to win more games and
more prize money. It is almost impossible to discover this until it is too
late and the game or match is lost. In the case or Mr. Lakma his
particularly ruse ran to the dice, as he tried to throw yet another double
in his total of over sixty double throws. It was at this point someone
became suspicious and Mr. Lakma began to see his freedom evaporate.
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