The game tends to attract people of all types. This is a good thing, but there’s bound to be an inevitable Venn-diagram overlap between someone who is both (1) a bridge player and (2) not all that nice.
I don’t mean general rudeness or an inclination to cheat; what about darker behaviors that have no place at your local bridge club, tournament or table?
As a thought, should bridge screen its members more?
Here’s why those in charge of bridge clubs in tournaments should ideally always know who their members are.
Why?
Background checks are important. No, essential.
Do you want youth bridge players to partner up with a player who has a record for a serious sex offense? No. Do you want someone with a prior conviction for fraud to be in charge of the cash-flow for your club? Nope. And yet it’s common for clubs to skip the idea of a background check just because nobody thought of asking.
It deserves to be considered as memberships, clubs and tournaments all over the world see more foot traffic.
I’m not saying that anyone with a dodgy record or criminal conviction should be skewered and removed from bridge: That’s counterproductive and inhumane. But shouldn’t most clubs be screening people for violent crime and sexual offenses at the very least?
As one example, an unnamed board game cafe was recently shut down when its owners were caught up in charges for human trafficking: They’d been involved in a mass adoption scam selling children to the highest bidders. Could this have been stopped before it happened? Probably.
Here’s how it applies to bridge.
1. Record Detailed Member Information
Bridge clubs should record detailed information on their members; this includes the basics like their names and social security details, but also things like their next-of-kin contact and their allergen and medical history where it’s applicable.
Why?
It can save someone’s life in the event of a medical emergency, it acts as a record of information where someone might go missing and need identification – and it can help you to screen members far easier.
2. Know Thy Partner
Know your bridge partner, and if your kids play bridge, at least introduce yourself to the person your precious offspring will be spending time with even if you don’t play bridge yourself.
It’s the responsible thing to do, but at the same time I know that a lot of non-bridge playing parents might assume that their children know what they’re doing and leave it at that. Don’t.
I’m not saying hire a private investigator to follow your bridge partner. That’s creepy. But you should know at least a few things about your bridge partner for the safety of both people in the bridge partnership.
What if your bridge partner has a heart condition and needs their heart medication on the way to a game? You could have known just what to do by asking beforehand.
3. Screen Information for Membership
Other than recording member information, screen member info against databases like the Sex Offender Registry in your country. It’s likely that the search will come up clean for 99.9% of the searches that you do, but it’ll be worth checking anyway for the 0.1% that don’t.
4. An Open Complaints Policy – and Three Strikes
I’m sure that this is already being done at many bridge clubs, but I’m also just as sure that it’s not being done at many others.
Make sure that your bridge club has an open complaints policy so that members are willing to voice their concerns if a member acts inappropriately.
With serious enough complaints or enough repeated complaints of harassment about the same member, a club should either investigate the matter (and proceed with the appropriate criminal charges) and ban the member.