Backgammon as a Social and Competitive Play
Many Backgammon enthusiasts have formed clubs for playing Backgammon socially. Some local clubs hold informal gatherings including members sometimes meeting at cafes or bars in the evenings to play the game as well as socialize with each other engaging in conversations and the pleasure of playing.
There are a few clubs that offer the traditional services as well. The clubs are maintained with their own facilities and most of the clubs nowadays offer their analysis made by the computer when encountering plays deemed troublesome. Some of the club leaders have seen a growth for the game of backgammon recently and most of them attribute this to the popularity of playing the game on the internet.
The backgammon variant Chouette allows three Backgammon players or more to participate in one game usually with money at stake. A player competes against a certain team with all of the other players, and there is a rotation of positions after every game. The Chouette version of the game often allows making use of doubling cubes in multiples.
There are also organized tournaments for Backgammon. Backgammon clubs usually does the organization of such tournaments. There are large club tournaments which usually draw many competitors from other places or regions, with the final games or matches being viewed by many fans of the game or spectators. Top players of the tournaments held in the regions often see competition for major international or national stakes such as international championships for Backgammon.
The winners at these tournaments may get tens of thousands of dollars. One example of the tournament is the Party Gaming, where they announced a stake of US$1,000,000 held last 2006 in Bahamas.
International competition
Before 1979, there was not one world championship catering for Backgammon players, although there were several major tournaments which were held in the Bahamas and Las Vegas, but since then the Backgammon championship held in Monte Carlo has been widely accepted as the top international championship or the top international tournament.
It is now acknowledged as the World Backgammon Championship game. Players and spectators come in thousands and play in a series of weeks. Currently, the major tournaments for Backgammon are held every year in Rio de Janeiro, Dallas, St. Tropez and Venice.
Gambling
Gambling in Backgammon or playing for money is done by assigning a value to each match or game and to play with a determined score aimed at being reached first. The game is stopped if a player decides to stop. The monetary value or the stakes usually rise by the gammons, backgammons, and of course using the doubling cube.