Sports Cheating
Fishing
Fishermen have been thought of as having integrity and honor. Unfortunately, it seems that cheaters look for these situations where cheating is rare. Jake Runyon and Chase Cominsky decided to cheat at fishing tournaments. They were caught at the Lake Erie Walleye Trail Tournament in Cleveland Ohio. Runyon and Cominsky were named the winners bringing in a purse of $28,760. The organizer was unsure of the win, because the weight was more than usual. When the director of the tournament, Jason Fischer cut open the fish he found weights and fish filets inside. As a result both Runyon and Cominsky were indicted, and Cominsky‘s boat and trailer were taken as tools of the crime.
Cornhole
Yes, cornhole is a sport that is formed under the American Cornhole League. In August of 2022, at the World Championships in South Carolina. One of the competitors accused their challengers Mark Richards and Phillip Lopez of using smaller than regulation bags during the finals. When the bags were examined they were found to be smaller, then the regulation size. In turn the accused teams asked to have the opponent‘s bags checked. Incredibly those bags did not meet regulation requirements either. The league decided that none of the inspected bags were intentionally tampered with, so the tournament continued on. Since this is a relatively new league, they promised more oversight and possibly adding referees. This occurrence was named by those in the cornhole know, “bag gate”.
Baseball
The newly dubbed Houston Astros World Series Champs had been found to be using their video system to identify signals between the pitcher and the catcher in 2017. If this information is relayed to the batter, then they have a better chance of hitting with this knowledge. It is believed that Altuve of the Astros was up at bat with 2 balls, 1 strike, when the deciding play off game was tied with Yankees 4 – 4. Altuve launched the slider for a home run to win the game. There is no actual proof, but it is believed he had a buzzer on him that would signal which pitch to expect. This put the Astros into the 2017 World Series. As Altuve was rounding the bases he signaled to his teammates to not rip his shirt. Observers believe he Altuve did not want to reveal a buzzer covered by his shirt.
Aaron Judge was beat out for the MVP for that season by Astro player Jose Altuve. Judge felt that with the signal advantage that he got cheated out of this prestigious award. Other players from the league agreed. The Astros were given a $5 million fine and in turn they fired both their Manager and General Manager. Signals are communicated to the batter in different ways. The Astros were not the only team accused of sign stealing. The Boston Red Sox were accused by the Yankees. However, the Yankees were also accused and fined $100,000. All this cheating was a signal to the MLB that there needed to be more stringent consequences and those were communicated to the teams and their owners. Does this still go on? Probably!
Gambling
It seems that gambling has always been known as an activity where cheating is quite prevalent. No one feels bad about a casino or bookie losing money, so it makes sense that it’s a good candidate to get cheated. Millions of dollars a year is spent on casino security, yet people keep trying. There is too much money to be had and it motivates nefarious types to come up with new schemes.
One technique used in casino gaming is card counting. From the 1970’s to the 1990’s Bill Kaplan trained over one hundred blackjack players from MIT and other prominent schools to use a card counting technique that brought in over $10 million dollars. Card counting is not illegal, but certainly a form of cheating. Card counters cannot be prosecuted, but casinos can ban them from entering. This scheme was so attractive that it was made into the movie 21.
Ron Harris, a software engineer, had a job creating anti-cheating software for the Nevada Gaming Board in the 1990’s. He rigged 30 slot machines to payout when a certain sequence of coins were fed into them. Using accomplices they made hundreds of thousands of dollars. One of the accomplices was arrested in Atlantic City and fingered Harris. He got a seven year sentence.
Richard Marcus who was once homeless got a job dealing baccarat and blackjack. As a player Marcus would bet a hand and if it was a winner he would discreetly switch them out for higher valued chips. Marcus made about $5 million. He was caught but never convicted. Eventually he became a casino protection consultant and wrote books about his casino life.
Cryptocurrency
The cryptocurrency market is one that many investors have little understanding of. There are some of us, including myself that would not take that risk, but there are others particularly younger investors that see crypto as a fast way to make a profit. This was true for the last several years. Until the stock market trended down. It was hard to predict as to how the cryptocurrencies would do during inflation, since it was only traded during one of the longest bull markets. Unfortunately, cryptocurrency was not a hedge, but plummeted along with the stock market.
What Happened to FTX?
With a struggling market cryptocurrency companies were having some liquidity problems. Last week the second largest cryptocurrency company. FTX was found to have some serious problems. Previously, the owner Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) made sizable loans to help out other crypto companies. He even spent money on FTX Arena in Miami and donated generously to political parties. The company was flying high, until an article in CoinDesk claimed that there were financial problems at Alameda. Alameda is a crypto hedge fund also owned by SBF used billions of dollars worth of FTT cryptocurrency which is a token that comes from FTX the company. This is what SBF used as collateral for further loans. With the downturn in the crypto market those billions were devalued significantly.
The Relationship between Alameda and FTX
What this meant is that both Alameda and FTX would be damaged by the fall in value of FTT. SBF used the money from his hedge fund, billions of dollars in outside investments. FTX had a long standing promise to buy any tokens back at $22. To make the FTX situation worse, another large cryptocurrency company Binance announced on twitter that they were selling their FTT holdings, of $500m, due to “recent revelations that have come to light.”
Biance’s CEO, Changpeng Zhao, was going to rescue the company. After doing their due diligence they found severe problems and regulatory investigations in the U.S., so Biance backed out of the deal.. SBF said the firm needed $4bn to be solvent and $8bn necessary for a funding gap.
The cheating piece is that the monies used by SBF’s company Alameda was investors’ money. As a result there was a 2022, version of the depression era run on the banks. In a three day period $6bn in crypto tokens was withdrawn. Normally, withdrawals for a three day period ran in the tens of millions. Trading is now halted and FTX is filing for bankruptcy.
As of now there is very little regulation of cryptocurrency trading. Ironically SBF was considered such a stalwart person that he was working with the legislature on creating regulation for the market. Two regulatory agencies that are being considered are the Commodity Federal Trade Commission or the Securities Exchange Commission.
Many investors are now holding an empty bag. There are other crypto companies that had dealings with FTX that put them in dire straits too. SBF made an apology saying he”f–ked up” in his calculations and in his communications during the crisis. SBF that is an understatement. You used other people’s money to dig yourself out of a hole. That is cheating and indictable. There are investors that had their life savings with you and your apology won’t pay the rent or buy food. For all the people you harmed and the companies you put at risk, I am going to say WTH
