ABC TV News reported on the board game boom here. No way to embed the video, unfortunately.

Meanwhile, Alice Gomstyn on Money Beat reports on the board game trends from the NY Toy Fair. She talked to Hasbro and Mattel.

Hasbro is producing new variants of their board games, making them cheaper, and pushing family game nights. Mattel said that the toilet in their new Barbie’s Dreamhouse makes flushing noises.

Hard to believe that Mattel is doing badly.

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South Carolina’s laws vaguely state any game involving dice or cards could be considered a gambling game, even if you’re not playing for money. Over the last two years, several arrests and fines made it to the news.

So it’s a nice turn to see that one of these cases finally went before a judge, who ruled that there is overwhelming evidence that Texas Hold’em is a skill game, not a gambling game. This follows a similar ruling from Pennsylvania last month.

It didn’t stop the judge from finding the particular defendants guilty, however, for reasons I don’t entirely understand (elucidation would be appreciated).

(source)

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Fans of UFS are invited to a tournament at the source. Fantasy Flight Games will be running a 3 day invitational at the FFG Event Center in Minneapolis April 17-19. There will be no entry or event fees. All you need to get in is at least one patch from a Path of the Master tournament.

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