> By this judge's reckoning, you have to just be a robot that sits passively and accepts all the hand exactly as dealt and not use any strategy to play the game

> By this judge's reckoning, you have to just be a robot that sits passively and accepts all the hand exactly as dealt and not use any strategy to play the game to your advantage. That's basically gambling. Which is exactly what the game they were playing was supposed to be. Pure chance. In fact gambling can be distilled down to that. Passively accepting your hand in the game and hoping for the best. That doesn't sound very appealing, but throw in human nature and biases and you get something quite addictive out of what is essentially a lopsided passive engagement.