Every once in a while, a scandal comes along and shakes up the world of competitive bridge. Just this year, more than a handful of bridge players have received bans for things you wouldn’t expect – including kibitzing themselves, which is exactly as obscene as it sounds in bridge.
But I’d like to take a moment to remind bridgeurs of the world that the game of competitive bridge isn’t the only tabletop game that sees scandal from time to time.
Almost just as often, tabletop games like Magic: The Gathering, poker, and Monopoly are struck by the occasional scandal.
Monopoly?
Yup.
Here are 4 online tabletop scandals that should prove that you can find a handful of worms in other types of fruits, too.
1. The MTG Plagiarism Scandal
Magic: The Gathering is one of the most popular trading-card games of all time, with international tournaments and casual players around the world.
In one of their worst scandals to date, the game’s manufacturer Wizards of the Coast has suspended illustratorJason Felix with immediate effect after reports that upcoming deck art had been plagiarised from a fan.
It’s not just inspired by fan art, but stolen directly from it.
How could anyone pull this off thinking they wouldn’t be caught in the age of simple reverse image searches?
The deck in question is called Strixhaven: School of Mages, and the card that got the illustrator into hot water is known as Crux Of Fate.
Oops.
2. The MTG Hall Of Fame Removal
Here’s the second scandal from Magic: The Gathering for the same list.
Japanese-based player Yuuya Watanabe played his first professional Magic: The Gathering tour in 2007. From there, he proved to play well enough to pick up even more subsequent wins.
He played his way to the Hall Of Fame in 2016.
Then came the scandal: Watanabe was removed from the Hall Of Fame in 2019 for cheating allegations (and well, later on, proof).
That’s pretty embarrassing.
3. The Poker Player (& The Malware)
Although earlier resources from this particular poker story didn’t name the player, later ones alluded to the idea that it might be poker champion Peter Jepsen.
During the European Poker Tour (EPT), the accused player had installed his own malware on competitor’s systems. The malware allowed him to see their face-down cards as he planned his play, leading to one of the most malicious ways to cheat high-stakes online poker.
Guess who won a few online poker games too much?
It turns out that this counted as more than just cheating the game. In this case, it was fraud, too.
4. The McDonald’s Monopoly Fraud
Have you ever heard of McDonald’s Monopoly, or do you happen to own a set yourself? The story behind the game is one of the most interesting ones the world of Monopoly might have to tell.
For the McDonald’s Monopoly game, certain high-value tokens could be exchanged for prizes. These prizes included particularly valuable items, like cars, making this one of the largest promotions ever run.
What could go wrong?
Well, fraud.
Security consultant Jerome Jacobson switched tokens at the place of origin, and made sure that the highest value ones could be redeemed by his acquaintances. It started with his friends, but branched out (and way out).
Eventually, it turned into an organized crime racket involving Genarro Colombo of the notorious crime family.
Not kidding. It’s called the McMillions scam
Eventually, a massive lawsuit involving more than 50 different people ensued.
How’s that for trivia at your next tabletop get-together?