Backgammon - Skill or Luck?

Is backgammon a game of skill or a game of chance? Is backgammon closer to strategy games such as chess and bridge or is it more related to dice games?

Backgammon enthusiasts would eagerly claim that backgammon is a game of skill. And righteously; backgammon does involve large extent of tactics and strategy and the game was studied by mathematicians and computer scientists. On the other hand, no one can deny that the random roll of the dice has significant part in the backgammon game.

The ambiguous distinction between the elements of skill and luck is something backgammon shares with many games. Since backgammon is often played for money, backgammon tournaments offer cash prizes and cost entry fees; the question on the nature of the backgammon game has legal implications.

In 1981, a backgammon tournament director battled against the ruling of an Oregon court, which outlawed organizing backgammon tournaments for money. With the help of former World Backgammon Champion Paul Magriel and other backgammon experts he had managed to convince the judge who concluded that "backgammon is not a game of chance but a game of skill."

The most convincing argument regarded the roll of the dice in backgammon. According to it, even though the dice conducts the movement of the checkers, each roll of dice offers at least 30 possibilities from which the players has to choose.

In other words, with lady luck by your side you can occasionally throw good rolls, but without the knowledge, experience, wise strategic and tactical play of a skilled backgammon player, how can you tell which movement to make?