I cheated in cards

My name is Mark and, once, I was a card cheat. This confession comes hard to me but as the winter months draw closer I feel it is a burden I must lift from my shoulders. With Christmas fast approaching – the traditional time of relentlessly dull games in my family – I wish to face this year with a clear conscience and without swindling my family. The world of cheating and gamesmanship is a rather murky one in which many dabble from time to time, from seeking advantage in sporting or academic competition to subtle subterfuge to liven a rather dull board game. These dark arts have a long and ignoble history which stretches back (probably) to the dawn of time when the very earliest games of Monopoly were begun in the futile hope that they would finish within the hour.