[rona_]

Just wondering how others feel about this because it's becoming a common occurrence in some paying tournaments, except ACBL.

TDs and members of the group sign up for their tournament, even though the conditions of the tournament do not specify "playing TD", and withdraw their names a couple of minutes before the start, or as in one case, one of the TDs would sign up for all the tournaments for that group for that day, but was never online to play them. Another enterprising TD was signed up for an individual and a pairs tournament, starting within 5 minutes of each other, both of which he was supposed to be directing! I thought if he could that that he must be amazing!

I know that people are more inclined to sign up if the numbers are larger, especially where they are told that if the number of players exceeds......whatever, they win a certain amount of money. I am all for bbo making money, as I think it is well-deserved, but I would like to know if, all the above happens with the approval of bbo, if they know about it, and what is the reason. Personally I would rather pay and play in tournaments where nothing of the sort takes place.

Would anyone consider this unethical or merely enterprising? Of course there might be another perfectly logical explanation, but I have asked a couple of the TDs and I wasn't given one.

[DrTodd13]

Yes, this is unethical.

Todd

[sceptic]

it is a marketng ploy, no one shops in an empty store

[fred]

This matter was brought to our attention earlier today and I was not at all pleased to hear that this was going on.

I sent an e-mail to the heads of all of the pay tournament organizations asking them to stop this practice immediately. Furthermore, I told them that if we found that they were engaging in other practices that we thought were designed to intentionally deceive our members, that there would be consequence.

To his credit, Fo from BBOLAND responded almost immediately, apologized, and promised that he would make sure that his TDs would stop this practice. I have not heard back from the people who run the other organizations yet, but the BBO management will not allow this to continue.

It may take a couple of days until the people in charge of these organizations can get the message through to all of their TDs. If you see this happening next week (or any time after that), please let us know.

We have worked hard to earn the trust of our members and we will not tolerate any action by the pay tournament organizers that might do anything to compromise this trust. BBO management was not responsible for what happened here, but we realize that such things still reflect badly on us.

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

[fred]

I just received a reply from Vincenzo who is in charge of BBOITALIA.

He has promised that his TDs will stop this practice immediately.

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

[Gerben47]

Thanks Fred for taking quick action!

I think it is just sad that it is necessary.

Can anyone (perhaps from BBOLAND or BBOITALIA?) tell me roughly how my $1table money gets divided?

I know some part goes to BBO directly. What happens to the rest? Is it used for example to buy computers or pay for internet connection at reallife tournament venues to get vugraph broadcasts?

I think this is a great way to help continue to keep BBO free.

[uday]

Some goes to BBO; the rest goes to the organization running the TD. What they do w/this is the same thing anyone does w/this; buy shoes, movie tickets, ice cream

BBO deals with BBO servers, etc. These are not the responsibility of the various organizations (bridge clubs) .