Backgammon the time is now

I make no apologies for the next two articles, as they are not only relevant to each other in subject but in timing too. Unless you have been on a desert island or lost in an equatorial rain forest the media world has gone into overdrive with the supposed demise of internet gaming in the USA. The last week for the online gaming history has been one of the most traumatic, if not the most traumatic in its history.

The signing into law of the Unlawful Internet Gaming bill has consigned many companies into exile and some into obscurity. The next two hundred and sixty odd days will refine the technology behind the ban for banks and credit cards to produce full proof solutions to prohibit the transactions of gaming sites.

For the players who frequent these sites, this leaves a tremendous void in their gaming activities and for the gambling companies a massive hole in their accounts. Looking for the next legal poker or black jack is at the forefront of many online companies' strategies. Horse racing is one option and so is bingo but neither of these can offer the player interaction that poker or black jack offers. The only game that comes close is backgammon which is defined in law as a skill game and therefore or should be outside the gambling bill legislation. But for the gaming player backgammon only becomes exciting when there's money on it.

Whilst many online backgammon sites provide FREE play money sites, for the want to play poker player, but can't! backgammon does offer a betting option, fortunately a realistic one too. Unlike most gambling games; backgammon when applied to the gaming offering changes from a simple game of being lucky with the dice, into a defined game of skill.

There is also the ability to be able to bet through the game, which combined with the Doubling Cube now gives the game that extra special edge and the added spice that is so necessary to make your palms sweat and your brain enter into overdrive. The Doubling cube when used is like poker play, because as the action unfolds when the cube is offered, usually at one of the more crucial points in a game.

The player offered the cube either accepts or declines, if they decline the other player wins, or folds as in poker, if they challenge or raise the stakes, again like poker, then the dice moves on to the next level. Until it reaches 64 times, at that point the game is called or won. The stakes can be quite large by this point and the pot likewise. Tournament play can also bring great winnings as player's battle through contest after contest to the final.

Much like the well publicized poker tournaments that pre-empt the WSO. A further similarity to poker resides with the fact that backgammon has now entered into the TV schedules, promoted through mass media, bringing more and more attention to the game. Over the next few months one of the questions that poker players will be asking is this? Where am I going to go now? Perhaps the answer lies in backgammon, the oldest game in the world, but one that is right for today.