Historical US Court Case Says Backgammon Skill Based

In this day and age, the definition of a game as being skill based versus luck based can mean the difference from being able to play it in public or not. The recent decisions of the US Congress to pass a bill into law that is essentially the first step towards banning online poker caused many online backgammon players to cast a worried eye at their computer screens, wondering if they were suddenly going to lose access like some poker players had.

Fortunately for backgammon fans, a 1981 court case set a precedent that backgammon is, indeed, a game of skill - and thus free from the majority of anti-gambling rules that abound in the United States. At that time Portland, Oregon police arrested a backgammon tournament director and writer, Ted Barr, before the finals of his Portland Marriot Open began. Barr was charged with promoting gambling, and decided to fight the charges. He brought in World Backgammon Champion Paul Magriel (also a very successful poker player) to act on his behalf. Explaining how players must make as many as 30 different options after the dice was rolled, Magriel convinced the judge that skill was the real factor in the game.

Like a similar ruling from the Alabama Supreme Court in 1976, Judge Stephen S. Walker in 1981 decreed Barr innocent, and that backgammon is, indeed, a game of skill, not chance.