Playing with and cheating (8)
I believe the answer is:
fiddling
'playing' is the definition.
(fiddling is a kind of playing)
I don't understand the remainder of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for fiddling that I've seen before include "What Nero was doing while Rome burned" , "petty" , "trivial" , "wasting time?" , "Tinkering - trifling" .)