Skill Games

Skill games include some of the oldest forms of gaming, from board games like chess, checkers and backgammon, to more modern puzzle and word games like crosswords and scrabble. When we think of online gambling, we tend to think more of casino games, bingo or even poker and card games, but the skill gaming industry exploded onto the scene in about 2000 and has been running strong ever since.

What is Skill Gaming?

Skill gaming covers a very wide assortment of games. Basically, any game that involves a high percentage of skill to win, or to defeat quickly, is considered a skill game.

For example, not everyone can sit down and win a game of chess. It takes skill, and often years of practice and experience, to master a game like this. Even checkers, often considered a child’s board game, actually requires a level of skill in forethought amongst higher class players. Backgammon is one of the older skill games, and if you’ve ever tried to play it, you can understand just how much skill would be required to compete at tournament level.

Puzzle games are absolutely part of the skill game genre. Crosswords, matching games, Sudoku, even jigsaw puzzles fall into this category. There are also a number of arcade type games and casino games included in the skill games.

A lot of online skill game sites offer arcade-style games like bowling and darts. Casino skill games would include things like hi-lo, where dice are rolled, or cards are drawn, and the player must choose whether the next outcome will be higher or lower. This may seem like a luck-based game, but skill actually takes precedence in many situations.

Brief History of Skill Games

It’s hard to put a date on the origins of skills. Take trivia, for example. Who knows when people came up with the idea to ask questions and award prizes to the smartest players who answered the most questions right? There are some card games and board games like chess and backgammon that date back through the centuries.

While we can’t write up a “brief” history of skill games and establish the origins of each at the same time, we can take note of a few of the most significant developments in skill gaming history. For instance, the Milton Bradley Company dates back to 1860. Parker Brothers, the makers of Monopoly, Risk and Trivial Pursuit, has released over 1800 games since opening in 1883.

So we know that since the mid 19th century, people have been playing mass-produced skill games, in the home and otherwise. Back in the early days, skill games such as these were an incredibly popular pastime. Consider, there was no television, no music radio or stereo. When it came to home entertainment, you had two choices – talk about the day or play games (and there’s only so much you can say about a day!)

The latest milestone in skill gaming came about in 2000, when the online gaming community expanded to include games of skill. Casino software developers started integrating skill games into their platforms. Sites devoted to skill games alone began popping up on the web. It was long before a massive fan base formed, and online skill games became one of the most popular forms of online gaming, as well as online gambling, easily competing with the online casino, poker and bingo industry.

Is Online Skill Gaming Legal?

This subject relates most intimately with US online gambling laws. The United States government outlawed “remote gambling” in 2006 with the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). The legislation was so muddled and confusing that many online players felt they must stop wagering over the Internet completely.

In reality, online skill games are 100% legal in the United States. To verify this, we point out one very important definition in the UIGEA. This law defines “gambling” as any form of monetary wagering on a game that relies on luck more so than skill.

The name “skill games” alone tells us that these are all games that fall into the legal variety; those that are more often won by the player(s) with the most skill, not the most luck. There is no such thing as a skilled slots player, but there are certainly grandmaster chess players! A little luck is certainly not going to help you in competition with a grandmaster at skill gaming!