Do I need a record mat?

Hi,

This is a really stupid question. I have a Clearaudio Emotion turntable with an acrylic platform. It's unclear to me from the instruction manual whether I would need a mat to go on top of it. I am not talking about sound improvement per se (of course I am interested in that too if it helps), simply in terms of whether it would damage my record in any way without a record mat.

Thanks in advance for your help.