Backgammon is a social and competitive game

Club and tournament play

Fanatics have structured clubs for social play of backgammon. Neighborhood clubs may hold casual gatherings, with members meeting at cafés and bars in the evening to play and converse. Some clubs offer additional services, maintaining their own facilities or offering computer analysis of troublesome plays. A few club leaders have noticed a current growth of attention in backgammon, and attribute it to the game's attractiveness on the internet.
A backgammon chouette authorizes three or more players to take part in a single game, often for money. One player competes against a team of all the other participants, and positions rotate after every game. Chouette play frequently permits the use of multiple doubling cubes.
Backgammon clubs possibly will also arrange tournaments. Large club tournaments sometimes draw competitors from other regions, with final matches viewed by hundreds of spectators. The top players at regional tournaments often compete in major national and international championships. Winners at top tournaments may receive prizes of tens of thousands of dollars. One sponsor announced a purse of $1,000,000 for a tournament held in the Bahamas in 2006.

World Backgammon Championship

Earlier to 1979, there was no single world championship competition in backgammon. A number of tournaments were held in Las Vegas and the Bahamas. As from 1979, the World Backgammon Championship in Monte Carlo has been widely acknowledged as the top international tournament. The championship tournament in Monte Carlo draws thousands of players and spectators, and is played over the course of a week.

Gambling

When backgammon is played for money, the most frequent bargain is to assign a monetary value to each game, with the stakes raised by the doubling cube, gammons, and backgammons, and to play until a certain score is reached. Players may also simply assign a monetary value to each game, and play until either player chooses to stop. Backgammon is sometimes available in casinos. As with most gambling games, successful play requires a combination of both luck and skill, as a single dice roll can, in some circumstances, significantly change the outcome of the game.