What counts as skill?
Skill is a player’s ability to improve outcomes through knowledge, timing, planning, coordination or decision-making. A skill-based game allows better decisions or execution to produce more consistent results over time.
What counts as chance?
Chance is an outcome generated through a process the player cannot control, such as a shuffled draw, random number generator or unpredictable event. A player may decide whether to take a risk, but cannot command the random result.
| Experience | Player influence | Role of chance | Useful question |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strategy | Planning and adaptation | May vary the situation | Do good decisions improve consistency? |
| Action | Timing and coordination | May affect events or rewards | Can practice measurably improve performance? |
| Puzzle | Reasoning and recognition | Often limited | Are the rules stable and learnable? |
| Random reward | Choice to participate | Determines the reward | Are the cost and probability clear? |
Random events do not remember
In a properly independent random process, a sequence of earlier outcomes does not make a particular next outcome due. A run of losses does not create a debt that the game must repay. This mistaken belief is often called the gambler’s fallacy.
Questions to ask
- Which decisions genuinely affect the result?
- Can practice improve performance, or only familiarity?
- Are probabilities disclosed and understandable?
- Is money attached to random rewards?
- Does the design encourage chasing an earlier loss?
- Can time or spending limits be set before play?
Keep uncertainty in perspective
Randomness can make an experience varied and surprising. It becomes risky when uncertainty is presented as predictable, when costs are obscured or when a player feels pressure to continue. Treat paid chance-based activity as entertainment expense, never as income.