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The following is a sponsored review of BackgammonMasters.com, a site where you can play online backgammon for fun or, if you don’t live in the U.S., for actual money (and actual fun).

BackgammonMasters.com is a site that offers online backgammon with both real-money and fake-money games. As a die-hard online poker player who has been shut off by the new Prohibition against online gambling in these fair United States, I was immediately curious to see if, somehow, online backgammon was exempt from the foolish law. Nope. Right in the EULA, in bold print (kudos to the site for not hiding the sad reality of our backward nation’s politicians’ encroachment on our rights), is the bad news:

Residents of the United States are not permitted to participate in any promotions or real money games at our site. We are not accepting transactions from residents of the United States.

So there you have it. If you live in the States, and want to play for real money, it’s illegal. Well, with that out of the way, I decided to have a look at other aspects of the site, including the sister-site Gammonish.com, a site that teaches you about the rules and strategies of backgammon.

Gammonish.com labels itself the ‘official bible’ of backgammon, and, while it’s tough to prove or disprove the assertion that it’s the ‘official’ anything, the site is definitely a backgammon bible. The navigation is simple and light, although there are obviously a lot of choices, but the content is wide-ranging and extensive. For example, there are pages and pages of articles discussing everything from strategy to what backgammon software to buy. While I still can’t play for money on BackgammonMasters.com, I can make darn sure with Gammonish.com that I’m ready to go when the bloody embargo ends and I can gamble my frugal trappings away online once again.

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Wired.com has an article on the state of affairs of online gambling in the United States. As you may know, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) was passed back in September of 2006, making it illegal for Americans to gamble online. Most online poker players thought this sucked, and apparently still do. Also, not surprisingly, they’re getting past the blockade with the same old tricks, such as foreign pre-paid debit cards and Canadian addresses. If it weren’t so sickenly disturbing that we’re going through Prohibition all over again, it might even be funny.

In the interesting side note department, it seems the player interviewed in the Wired article, identified only as ‘Boy Wonder,’ graduated with me from Haverford in 2005.

The novice used to pay the rent for Boy Wonder, who started playing poker full-time after graduating from Haverford College in 2005. He earned around $1,000 a week playing in $1/2 and $2/4 limit games, which specify the amount a player can bet during rounds of play. But now the game is more trouble to him than it’s worth. “It’s unstable,” he says.

Soooo, who could it be? I have theories…

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Just out on Reuters.com–it seem the EU is a little (rightly) pissed off that the U.S. has taken a protectionist standpoint with regards to Internet gambling. Just another ‘bluff’ supposedly intended to protect us from gambling-addicted selves, which is in reality an attempt to screw us out of our money in real casinos, where they can charge us $7 a drink, too. Here’s the full article, also available at this page:

U.S. restrictions on online gambling may be challenged by the European Union, the bloc’s top financial regulator said Tuesday.

“In my view, it is probably a restrictive practice, and we might take it up in another” forum, EU Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy told the European Parliament.

The United States was protecting its own gambling industry by stopping foreign companies from entering the online betting sector, McCreevy said.

“It’s not my intention to bring forward a harmonized piece of legislation on gambling in the European Union,” McCreevy added.

The United States has introduced rules to stop card companies from dealing with foreigners for online bets, McCreevy said. He has launched legal actions against several EU countries to tackle obstacles to foreign competition.

I’m glad somebody ‘called’ the government on this one. Alright, enough with the poker puns.

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