Game Blotter

An unemployed man in Shanghai lost ¥2,000 playing Mahjong. In an effort to fix his mistake, he followed the man to whom he lost the money and beat him to death with a brick.

Mattel’s CFO reportedly fell for an email scam and wired $3.2 million to a bank account in China. The email is said to have looked like a request from the CEO for funds as part of an acquisition. Fortunately, Mattel realized the error in time and by sending a representative in-person to Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, was able to have the receiving account frozen pending final resolution with local authorities.

Chris Morris Lent claims it is common for Magic: The Gathering competitors to take the drug Adderall to enhance their performance during tournaments. Despite that, he claims that he was high on mushrooms when he won a regional event. Chris is also known for recently publishing an article in which he suggests that the quality of play on the Magic Pro Tour isn’t particularly high, that Wizards of the Coast skimps on expenses when running Pro Tour events, and that most online MtG news outlets fail to cover how these events are run.

The Rwanda Chess Federation runs an annual Genocide Memorial Chess Tournament.

A couple vacationing near New Braunfels, Texas got in to an argument over a game of Scrabble. When the guy decided to send his girlfriend home on the bus, she broke a wine bottle on him and then stabbed him in the arm with a shard of glass.

A Connecticut investigation in to restraint and seclusion practices by public schools found that one student had been put in a padded cell for lying about winning a board game.

Spurred on by social media (#charliecharliechallenge), students around the world have been getting in to trouble for playing Charlie Charlie in school. The game, similar to Ouija, has students balance one pencil on another to ask questions of a Mexican demon. The Vatican disapproves. Daniel got detention for “summoning demons in class.”

Battlefront Miniatures and Dust Studios are at odds over their closed joint Kickstarter project for Dust miniatures. Each has made public accusations blaming the other for their failure to deliver a second wave of backer rewards.

According to police, a couple in North Battleford, Saskatchewan were up at 3:00 AM drinking and playing Monopoly. An argument developed over the game and the woman hit the man in the head with a planter.

The Seminole Indian tribe of Florida is keen to have renewed its exclusive license for gambling on card games but the state failed to take the necessary action before the adjournment of the legislature. The deal is covered by the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act and expires at the end of July.

After threatening “proceedings” last month, FIDE reinstated Grandmaster Sebastien Feller, previously banned for cheating at the 2010 Chess Olympiad.

Police in Tamsui, Taiwan raided an illegal Mahjong parlor, which they discovered in an apartment building when they heard loud noises coming from a second story window.

A young Chess player fled his native Bangladesh because of political persecution then was able to obtain asylum in France after winning a French championship tournament.

Flora, Mississippi: dice, argument, gun-in-car, murder.

Another Chess coach—last month it was one in Columbus Ohio, this month it’s one in Sydney, Australia—has been charged with indecent assault of a young girl. Police say it happened during Chess lessons.

A few guys were playing Dominoes around a park bench in Nassau, Bahamas when a car drove by and someone shot in to the group. One of the players was declared dead at the scene.

A group of six men playing Dominoes at a recreation center in Wichita were robbed by a group of five men wielding guns.

Plainclothes Brooklyn police officers found five men gambling over dice and arrested them for loitering, weapons possession, and drinking in public.

In Grand Rapids, Michigan, a witness says that two people were playing dice in his driveway when one got upset at losing and shot the other. This was the second time in less than a year that the victim was shot. There won’t be a third. Two days later the suspect was found dead of a self-inflicted wound.

In St. Louis, a man on his way to purchase drugs stopped to play dice with some strangers. It turns out this was a mistake because an argument ensued and one of the men he was playing with shot him at least five times. He did not survive.