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BGonline.org Forums
Existing research
Posted By: Casper van der Tak In Response To: Bad news from Belgium (Patrick De Wilde)
Date: Sunday, 10 October 2010, at 9:56 a.m.
It is probably also a good idea to have a look at existing research into compulsive gambling. The research that I consulted shows that purported goal of reducing the social ills is not served by targeting backgammon (or bridge for that matter).
For the Netherlands, there is, for instance, research done by (or published by) AGOG, internationally Gambler's Anonymous that provide a lot of information.
In the case of the Netherlands, I found a 270 pages long report prepared for the Ministry of Justice that does not even mention backgammon as one of the problem games.
There is a difference between 'short-odd' games and 'long-odd' games. Short odd games provide an almost instantaneous feedback between play and monetary result (e.g., the one armed bandits or 'fruitautomaten'); long odd games have a much longer separation between play and the monetary result, and are deemed to be less addictive.
The most addictive are those games that the government has regulated (and is the one taking money from...).
To make backgammon legal (or increase the chances it will be deemed legal), it is probably a good idea to find a structure that increases the delay between play and knowing the result. Also, it may be a good idea to find a tournament formula that duplicates dice (e.g. having teams of two play unlimited games [don't call it money games] of say 10 games against another team of 2, in which the dice are switched). We know that this does not eliminate luck at all, and may not be a fairer way of assessing BG skill, but it would address some of the appearances of luck.
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