The Hobbit edits here make a lot of sense in the bigger picture, though. Given what we later learn about the Ring, there's NO WAY Gollum would wager it as a 'pr

The Hobbit edits here make a lot of sense in the bigger picture, though. Given what we later learn about the Ring, there's NO WAY Gollum would wager it as a 'present' in a riddle game... And if he somehow did, he would cheat like hell to keep it, despite all the 'ancient tradition' around the Riddle Game. The edit is great; it solves the continuity problem in a really creative way. Making the old version into Bilbo's self-serving rationalization is an excellent bit of meta-fiction, further reinforcing the seductive power of the Ring.