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BGonline.org Forums
Attempt at clarification--the answer is obvious
Posted By: Phil Simborg In Response To: Attempt at clarification (Timothy Chow)
Date: Wednesday, 14 January 2015, at 8:37 a.m.
The percentage of people playing tournament backgammon compared to the percentage of people who simply play for money is tiny. It is impossible to guess as we have no idea how many people are out there playing in private chouettes and private heads up games for money, but we do know that there are millions of people all over the world playing backgammon and a very small number that EVER play in tournaments.
So with your clarification, it is a no-brainer.
Now, has this changed over the years? Again, I don't know how anyone can measure the number of non-tournament players, but there is no question that the ratio of non-tournament and gambling players to tournament players has always been high.
The tournament community is organized. There are memberships to federations and blogs like this and we are connected, and that is pretty much known. But the gambling and private game universe is completely disconnected and unknown. All we do know, from a tremendous number of sources, that there are a lot of people in the world who play backgammon, and many of those wager, be it a dollar or a million dollars, and we know that tournament participation is tiny in comparison.
Anecdotally, my own experience in fielding inquiries about backgammon lessons, of course, is largely from serious players who play tournament play, but I have many current and past students that have never attended a tournament in their life and strictly want to improve to do better in their local and private money games. (I would estimate that about 1/4 of my current students are strictly money players or only play in tournaments once or twice a year.) As a result of these students I have become aware of a tremendous number of groups of people who are playing for money, and those students don't want to waste their time with anything about match play. And surprisingly, many of those students could hold their own in a money game with most tournament players and could certainly become open level tournament players if they chose to study match play. There is a huge underground of money players and strictly gambling players out there, and I am sure the inquiry I have seen barely scratches the surface since I am also sure that the huge percentage of people who play just to gamble have never formally studied the game or even read a book or article on the game.
Of course, there is another point that is important. A huge percentage of people who play tournament backgammon also gamble at backgammon at times, and many of us, including me, play more hours of money games than we do of match play. So the tournament and skill players are also largely money players, at least part of the time, as well.
Now, I believe the key reason for you question is to ask if the game has changed over the years. My guess is that we probably do have more people playing backgammon as an intellectual exercise...playing in live or on-line tournaments or playing on bots or apps for the pleasure of seeing how to improve and win, and because we now have this possibility electronically, this percentage must have increased over 20 or 40 years ago, but it is still small in comparison to players who play strictly to gamble with their friends at their local pub or street corner or in their private homes.
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