Poker Cheating

[Kurn]

First of all, use of performance enhancing drugs is not in the same class of wrongdoing as multi-accounting and ghosting in online poker. The latter is much worse.

If there existed no rules in online poker against playing more than one account in a tourney, would a rational person think it was ethically OK? On the other hand, athletes utilize medical and pharmaceutical technology to recover more quickly and/or enhance their performance all the time. Cortizone shots, surgery, Laser vision improvement. When the "steroid era" began, they certainly weren't breaking any written rules, and if you've read Jim Bouton's "Ball Four", you're aware that amphetamines were rampant in major league clubhouses in the 50's and 60's. Is Willie Mays any less a "cheater" because the drugs he used to attempt to enhance his performance weren't as effective as those used by Barry Bonds? Philosophical question, I guess.

Poker is a different story. Collusion is an underhanded way to cheat people out of their money. Every player risks his own money under a basic assumption of fairness.

The word "cheating" has been throw around in a few different non-analagous situations recently regarding rule breaking. Maybe its a failure of language.

Is JJProdigy a cheater? Sure looks like it.

Was Barry Bonds a cheater? Assuming he did use steroids, I'm still conflicted on the use of the word, but lean towards "yes." Here's one to go along with this one(though not about drugs). Was Gaylord Perry a cheater?

Clearly I don't think the word applies to the Patriots. I'd like to think I'd still hold that same opinion were I not a fan, but I understand that that makes me not an unbiased source. So lets look an an analagous situation from MLB. Was Bobby Thompson a cheater in 1951(Google it if you don't know what I'm talking about)?

On the other end of the scale, would anybody call O-line players who frequently get called for holding cheaters? (we'll ignore the fact that refs don't call it anywhere near as much as they used to)

At what point does breaking a rule make one a cheater, and at what point does overuse of the word devalue the stigma that label places on someone?