Is Magic The Gathering Considered Gambling

Posted By admin On 06.06.20
The Magic: the Gathering Pro Tour bring the world’s best MtG players together in one of four annual professional tournament stops, where they’ll compete for a share of $250,000 in prizes. This article examines betting opportunities that Pinnacle is providing with MtG markets, and why Magic players should be excited about that relationship.

What is the Magic: the Gathering Pro Tour?

Magic (MtG) is a collectible trading card game created in 1993, the first successful archetype in the genre. Players purchase unique random game cards in packs, then build decks using strategies that use those cards in unison, attempting to make the whole deck greater than the sum of its parts.

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The MtG Pro Tour, created in 1996, was a marketing scheme designed to give players aspirations of playing full time, thus increasing player dedication to the game. The gambit worked better than could be expected; the Pro Tour has spawned a worldwide community of over 12 million players, with deep qualification system that spawns local communities. It’s bound to get bigger too, with 20th Century Fox signed on to create a series of films based around the game. MtG has provided the mold from which a plethora of other gaming phenomena have followed.

Interesting markets

Ante was intended to introduce an element of gambling to Magic, but it proved unpopular as many players did not like risking the loss of their cards, and rarely played for ante. There were also concerns within Wizards of the Coast that playing for ante might result in official tournaments being legally recognized as gambling. When trying your luck at online casinos, you should aim play with a casino bonus as is magic the gathering considered gambling often as possible. It adds a ton of value to your deposits, and gives you more chances to hit the big wins in the games.

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Pinnacle has committed to offering odds on every Pro Tour. While constantly on the lookout for additional market ideas, the focus at present is on two groupings, both of which focus on the contents of Pro Tour: Journey Into Nyx’s top 8 composition:

  • The players – Simply, you can bet yes or no on the question of whether particular competitors will make the top 8. Options include well-known players and popular sub-groups like the top 10 or top 25 ranked players and members of the MtG Pro Tour Hall of Fame. You can also bet over/under on the number of North Americans and Europeans who will do the same.
  • The cards – By understanding the cards that might be popular in the top 8, you can gain an edge on the market with over/under bets on Swamps, Islands, Mountains, Forests, Plains and Temples.

To look at both strategies, we called on a pair of Pinnacle employees who have both played Magic professionally in the past, Jelger Weigersma of the Netherlands and Italian Antonino DeRosa:

Jelger: “I would be interested in the Basic Land props. It would be cool to see if I can accurately predict the metagame and the best decks. For the player props, I would bet the somewhat underrated players on the big teams.”

Antonino: “When choosing what to bet I would focus on the players with the hot hand. Don’t really go on historic data to find value. Another thing you should focus on is the format they are playing; if a player has historically performed well in the tournament’s format, then you should try to get a good price on him. Finally, before making your bet, try to analyze what team your horse is testing with. Facebook can help with that. With it being so prominent thru the magic community, you can read status updates to make sure players haven’t found a distraction that will make less time for them to test.”

Betting MtG for the Professional

***When this section was written, the author and respondents were unaware Pro Tour rules forbade betting by participants. Pinnacle doesn’t advocate rule-breaking, but we have left the section untouched as some points made here apply for Pro Tour enthusiasts***

Antonino and Jelger agreed that if betting markets were available in their day, they’d have taken advantage.

Antonino: ”I would have loved the opportunity to bet when I was on the tour. There were many Pro Tours where I thought my team would have the best deck, but I either felt I wasn’t able to play the deck properly or I was too busy going to school or working to be able to test enough. I would have loved to bet on some of my teammates who I knew were playing it well.”

Jelger: “It’d be sweet to be able to use my expertise from testing to make some money and add some excitement to the Pro Tours even if I didn’t do well at the tournament itself.”

For professional players, bragging rights are on the line too. Not only will MtG markets provide the opportunity for pros to back the inevitable trash talk that emerges in any competitive endeavor, but they’ll also eventually sort that pecking order for everyone to see. General consensus on who the best are will be backed by the numbers. For experienced players, inside knowledge could be profitable here as those markets develop. You may want to urge your favorite MtG bloggers to weigh in on our odds.

One other likely potential effect: Markets will give an indication of the metagame (the subset of popular decks). Pro Tour participants can watch Pinnacle markets—which have always proven predictive in other sports—and use the information to determine what other players might play. If a particular player’s odds tighten, it may be because of team belief in their deck. If over/under on a land type moves, it’s likely an indicator of what teams are finding in their tasting. Information is power, both in MtG and sports betting.

Betting MtG for the fan

While some of the benefits to pros detailed above may be obvious, the broader benefits will belong to the fans of the game watching at home. As with fandom in other sports, a personal stake in the results heightens the fan experience. As with betting on other sports, the personal stake will incentivize the fan to delve even deeper in their understanding of the professional game.

I love MtG,” said DeRosa. “Now that I am retired, watching it at home makes me feel like I am still in the loop. Betting on the Pro Tour can only make your interest in watching it and your enjoyment that much greater. I love the idea of testing for the Pro Tour even though you aren’t qualified just so you can make some prop bets.”

Pinnacle is excited about MtG betting, much in the same way as we are about eSports. We believe these sports are part of the future of sports betting, which is why ours is the first major sports book to support their markets. We also feel that’s an important step in their upwards march toward mainstream recognition. We look forward to continuing to grow our MtG offerings; if you have any suggestions on how to do so, we’d love to hear from you at [email protected].

I’d like to take a minute to talk about gambling, bribery, and improperly determining a winner at sanctioned Magic Tournaments. This will not include details of any specific events and is, instead, a general overview of the rules and why they are in place. This article is written in hopes that players can avoid these unfortunate situations.

Gambling
Gambling is not allowed in any form or amount. This covers everything from “loser buys the winner a candy bar” to “I’ll bet $1000 Player A beats Player B”. It doesn’t matter if the result of the bet is money, stuff, service, or just the loser having to wear a funny wig. It also doesn’t matter if you are betting on the match you are in or one you are spectating. It isn’t limited to match outcomes either. “10 dollars says my next card is a land,” is gambling. Gambling cannot take place at a Magic tournament, period. Any gambling, offer to gamble, or anything that looks like gambling will result in disqualification. This sounds severe, and it is. This is the only way Magic is allowed to exist in most areas of the United States, as well as many other countries around the world. If any governing authority determines that Magic is gambling, it either becomes subject to gambling regulation, or becomes completely illegal. (As an example, in Georgia, gambling is a misdemeanor. Operating a store that promotes gambling is a felony.)

Bribery
Bribery is a term that covers using any type of incentive to affect a match outcome, as well as any statement that could imply an incentive to affect a match outcome. This doesn’t just affect you and your opponent. It affects the entire tournament and everyone in it. This doesn’t need to be explicit, and in most cases, it isn’t. Disguising an offer within a statement like “Well, I’m a very generous person if you’d like to concede.” is still bribery. The intention to actually go through with an offer or not doesn’t matter. The offer alone is enough to affect the match. “I’m hungry. Give me your chips, and you can have game one. HaHa, we can’t actually do that,” is still an offer. There are also laws in some areas that govern skilled gaming with prizes even if it isn’t defined as gambling. Because there is great potential for an entire tournament to be affected and because of legal concerns, all cases of bribery are disqualifications.

Improperly Determining a Winner
Improperly Determining a Winner (IDW) is a term that refers to using or offering to use any method except for playing Magic using the deck that is supposed to be used to decide who wins. The most common example of this is rolling dice or flipping a coin, but it’s not limited to that. Another example is, when time is called, reveal the next few cards of the library to see who would have won if it didn’t go to time. It is not necessary to actually go through with this in order to be committing IDW. Offering the option to use any outside method is IDW. The object of a Magic tournament is to test the skills of the players. Using any other method than playing the appropriate format of Magic doesn’t just affect one match, it changes the breakers and standings of every player in the tournament. This also has the same effect as above. Rolling a die, flipping a coin, arm wrestling for the match, or any other alternative method of determining a winner all put a tournament at risk of legally being considered gambling because there is real-world value on the line. Because of this big potential impact, all offers of IDW are disqualifications.

How Does This Affect Me?
In all of these cases, it is important to know that intent and knowledge of the rules are not relevant. Knowledge and intent can affect whether or not a player is suspended from future play, but a player who is ruled as having performed any of these infractions will ALWAYS be removed from the current event. This is because these particular infractions have the potential to affect an entire tournament or even the legal status of Magic as a whole. It is best when Magic is about fun, but the integrity of the tournament will always come first. It is unfortunate when a new or unwitting player is disqualified when they didn’t know better, but it will happen because these rules are needed in order to protect the game itself.

Jokes can be used to hide real offers, or even accidentally be construed as a real offer, which can still affect the tournament. Because of this, the line for removal from an event must be the statement itself, not how serious the statement is. It doesn’t matter if everyone is in on the joke. All statements that look like an offer to do any of the above things are “real enough” to be disqualifications (DQ). Just don’t do it. There is nothing worth saying that is funny enough to be worth a DQ.

Players whose opponents do anything described here must report it to the tournament staff immediately; (report to the judge if a judge is present and the Tournament Organizer if a judge is not present). If an opponent doesn’t report this offer, they are considered complicit, and they will also be disqualified from the event. This is still true if the opponent refuses the offer. This is because whenever any of these things happen, they NEED to be found so they don’t end up affecting the tournament. This also removes any suspicion that the opposing player has accepted the offer, making them equally guilty of the infractions. If this wasn’t required, a player could make an offer to an opponent; the opponent could say no, concede, and then ask for the money (or other relevant incentives) after the event. Once the offer is known, it has the potential to damage the event whether accepted immediately or not. It doesn’t feel good to be the person who has to report this, especially in the case where you don’t think the opponent meant any harm; however, to protect yourself, the rules require that you always report these statements.

It’s worth saying that there is no reason to dance around the line of one of these infractions. Magic attracts players who want to poke holes in current strategies and develop new ones. That is fine when working within different cards and the rules of the actual game. These infractions are not the place to try to find a loophole. They are intended to be absolute and strict. There is no advantage to be found by seeing how far statements can go before they become Bribery, Gambling, or IDW. If you are concerned that something you want to say could be wrong, call a judge; ask to speak away from the table. You can safely ask questions that way. (You still can’t attempt to bribe the judge. Don’t try to use this as a loophole.) To be clear though, there is no phrasing possible that can allow you to make any of the above types of offers to your opponent. No amount of clever wording, winking, or sign language can allow a match outcome to be connected to an incentive. (For those of you wondering, the rules are slightly different in the last single elimination round, and that will be covered by the head judge of the event if you make it that far.)

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Summary

Do not make any statement or implication that suggests determining a winner using anything other than playing the game of magic you are supposed to play, that looks like any form of gambling, or that implies any incentives connected to a match outcome. There is no context that will make any of these statements acceptable at any Rules Enforcement Level. There is no level of ignorance or misinformation that will allow the judge to overlook this. It doesn’t matter how serious the statement is or how seriously it was taken. The policy is zero tolerance at every event and at every rules enforcement level. Just don’t do it. If your opponent or any other player does this, do not respond and immediately call a judge.

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These rules are in place to safeguard the legality and integrity of Magic tournaments worldwide. If you take the time to ensure you know and understand the rules of the game and do nothing to break, skirt, or dance around them, then there can be more fun and competition with less harsh penalties.

Magic The Gathering Wiki

Links to the Magic Tournament Rules (MTR) and Infraction Procedure Guide (IPG) (current versions at the time of writing on 2/6/2018) can be found here. For more info about all of these infractions, see MTR section 5.2 and 5.3 and IPG sections 4.3 and 4.4

Magic The Gathering Card List

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