03/15/2022
Isn't Jackpot Tournaments Gambling?
The answer is a resounding NO! Here's why
Game of Skill Regarding Jackpot Tournaments
Law and Legal Definition
Games of skill do not fall within the prohibition of the gaming laws.
Game of skill refers to any game, contest, or amusement of any description in which the designating element of the outcome is the judgment, skill, or deftness of the participant in the contest and not chance. In a game of skill, the outcome is determined mainly by mental or physical skill, rather than by pure chance.
They are a means of exploring one's own capabilities. These types of games encourage the player to look at, understand, and experience things. For instance, building sets, card games, educational games, letter games, play-by-mail games, mind sport, mathematical games, puzzles, guessing games, pencil and paper games, solitaire, and word games are games of skill.
The following is an example of case law on the game of skill:
Game of skill refers to any game, contest, or amusement of any description in which the designating element of the outcome is the judgment, skill, or adroitness of the participant in the contest and not chance. [Wedges/Ledges of California v. City of Phoenix, 24 F.3d 56, 63 (9th Cir. 1994)]
According to the statutes of most US states and US Federal statutes, gambling is defined as:
risking something of value upon the outcome of a contest of chance.
Fee-based tournaments do not constitute gambling because they involve predominantly skill, as opposed to chance, and are designed as entertainment for adults.
Here's a definition of Skill from Alabama Supreme Court: "Skill" - in the context of activities ... is merely the exercise, upon known rules and fixed probabilities, of "sagacity," which is in turn defined as "quickness or acuteness of sense perceptions; keenness of discernment with the soundness of judgment; shrewdness; [the] ability to see what is relevant and significant." (Webster's New International Dictionary 2ed, 1953)
As noted by the Arizona Supreme court:
"Paying an entrance fee in order to participate in a game of skill . . . in the hope of winning prize money guaranteed by some sponsor to successful participants, is a traditional part of American social life. [W]e are reluctant to adopt a statutory interpretation which would turn sponsors of golf, tennis, or bridge tournaments, ... and the like into class 6 felons.
TSPH2 Tossing Games™ competitions are no different from other skill games that have held tournaments in the world for hundreds of years like chess, golf, bowling, tennis, horseshoes, or any other skill-based games that have been played for cash or prizes.