You seem to view "it promotes gambling" as a negative. I happen to think backgammon is a great game precisely for this reason. The fundamental skill in backgam

You seem to view "it promotes gambling" as a negative. I happen to think backgammon is a great game precisely for this reason. The fundamental skill in backgammon is managing variance. Since there are many possible outcomes of the dice that you can't control, your job as a player is to put your checkers into position such that you're maximizing good outcomes and minimizing bad outcomes. Yes, in any giving game, a poor player might roll very well and win that game, but over a large sample, the better player will absolutely dominate. Backgammon also has the advantage over poker in the sense that it's still fun to play in the absence of gambling. Poker is dreadfully boring if no money is on the line.