One of America’s top youth Scrabble players has been caught cheating and has been expelled from the national championship tournament being held in Flordia.
A player on a nearby table noticed the un-named player dropping some blank tiles and hiding them. Blank tiles can be used as wildcards in Scrabble so hiding them, storing them away for later use, is similar to a gambler storing away high cards for later use.
John D. Williams, Jr, executive director of the National Scrabble Association and co-other of a Scrabble book, confirmed the explusion and told MSNBC that this isn’t the first time.
“It does happen no matter what. People will try to do this,” he said. “It’s the first time it’s happened in a venue this big though. It’s unfortunate. The Scrabble world is abuzz. The Internet is abuzz.”
The cheater got caught during a division 3 play off and forfeited all of his previous wins.
The prize money for victory in this tournament is a cool $10,000.
