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Comment by tericho | Hacker News Reader

I can't figure out how Kickback gets around the gambling legalities if they are hosted in the US. They also say they use PayPal for withdrawals which is shocking since gambling is against their TOS.

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It just lets Minecraft gamers compete for a pot of money they contribute into. It's actually really far behind the times, since mobile apps already have a library to put this in any game: http://skillz.com/

The idea is that if you compete in a skill based game for a pot of money, it isn't gambling. That said, a lot of the games are about as skill based as Flappy Bird.

It's a game of skill, not a game of chance, and thus isn't covered under the gambling regulations.

Doesn't that have to involve your skill in the performance, e.g. sports betting is still illegal in more than the number of states they say they are operating in, isn't it?

You're playing the video game, so it is your skill.

Surely this has been extensively double-checked and there is an explanation, but I'd be interested into what it is. I get the direction the likes of Uber and Lyft are coming from with the "we're just an app that connects 2 people", but the way Kickback is described on TC makes their "loophole" less obvious. I think they may be more geared towards one betting money against another that they can beat them personally, but it's not immediately clear.

It is legal to put money on it as a participant.

I can enter a Magic: the Gathering tournament with a $30 entry fee and 2 players where the winner gets $50. This isn't gambling since it is considered a game of skill.

It would not be legal for a spectator to put money on the result of this match since their skill is not relevant to the outcome.

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