GammonEmpire

GammonEmpire was one of the flagship rooms of the mid-2000s real-money backgammon boom — a heavily marketed, tournament-driven money site that rose fast with the wave and disappeared almost without record when the wave receded. Its real-money operations are described here as history; the present-day GamesGrid is unaffiliated with GammonEmpire and operates entirely free of real-money play.

1. Launch and Corporate Background

GammonEmpire launched in December 2004, a few months into the Israeli backgammon gold rush, and grew quickly on aggressive marketing: a contemporary review reported the site claiming more than 1.7 million signups by December 2006. As with all operator-reported figures of the era, the claim cannot be independently verified.

Its corporate parentage ties it directly to Play65. The client executable was published by LogicEmpire — the same Israeli company that, under its later name SkillEmpire, ran Play65 — and community discussion grouped "GammonLogic (Play65/GammonEmpire etc)" as a single network of sites sharing software and infrastructure. One software directory additionally lists "Barosh Ltd." as publisher of the client's version 2.0. A widely circulated association between GammonEmpire and the London-listed Empire Online plc could not be verified and should be treated as unconfirmed.

2. Software and Play

The site offered a downloadable PC client plus a Java browser version serving Mac and Linux users. The product was built squarely around money play, available around the clock:

• Money games — head-to-head cash play, 24/7, with a tiered commission of 4.9%, 3.9% or 2.9% depending on stake level.
• Sit & Go tournaments — buy-ins from $5 to$200.
• "Swing" freezeout tournaments — the site's knockout format.
• Monthly tournaments — advertised with prizes of up to $100,000.
• "Backgammon School" — move-tutoring offered to money players, an early example of instruction bundled with a cash room. (Players today can find free equivalents on our learn and rules pages.)

3. US Players After UIGEA

When the American Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) passed in late 2006, the industry split: publicly listed operators such as PartyGaming withdrew from the US market at once (see PartyGammon), while privately held rooms carried on. GammonEmpire took the second path. A January 2007 CardPlayer piece noted the site's stance plainly: "US players are always welcome." This positioned GammonEmpire among the operators absorbing displaced American money players — a commercially attractive but legally exposed strategy characteristic of the period.

4. Allegations and Decline

GammonEmpire's later record includes at least one publicly aired payment dispute: a 2009 rec.games.backgammon thread alleged that a player's withdrawal of roughly €1,600 was blocked under an unexplained "security check". This is a single community allegation, never adjudicated publicly, and is reported here as such.

The site's end is simply undocumented. It was still referenced as live in community discussion in 2011, in the same bgonline.org conversations that tracked the fading GammonLogic network. At some point thereafter it went dark; the exact closure date is not documented anywhere we can verify. Today gammonempire.com hosts an unrelated informational site with no connection to the original operation.

5. Legacy

GammonEmpire belongs to the middle rank of the 2004–2008 boom: bigger than niche rooms like TrueMoneygames or BG Room, smaller in cultural footprint than PartyGammon and its Million, and ultimately inseparable from its sibling Play65. It advertised heavily during the PartyGammon Million era, when backgammon was briefly promoted as poker's successor. That the site could claim well over a million signups and yet vanish without so much as a recorded shutdown date says a great deal about how the boom ended — not with announcements, but with silence. The free-play tradition that preceded and outlasted it is chronicled on our history page.

See Also

• Play65 — sister site under the same corporate network
• PartyGammon — the boom's headline act
• TrueMoneygames and BG Room
• History of backgammon and GamesGrid

Footnotes

1. anawiki.com review, 2006 — contemporary description of the site and its claimed 1.7M+ signups.
2. gamesandcasino.com review — game formats, buy-in ranges and commission tiers.
3. CardPlayer, January 2007 — US player policy after UIGEA.
4. rec.games.backgammon thread, 2009 — blocked-withdrawal allegation.
5. bgonline.org thread, 2011 — GammonLogic network discussion and later references to the site.

Frequently asked questions about GammonEmpire

Who owned GammonEmpire?

Its client was published by LogicEmpire, the Israeli company that (as SkillEmpire) also ran Play65; community discussion treated the two as parts of one "GammonLogic" network. One software directory lists "Barosh Ltd." for version 2.0. A rumoured link to Empire Online plc is unconfirmed.

When did GammonEmpire shut down?

The exact closure date is not documented. The site was still referenced as live in 2011; today its domain hosts an unrelated informational site.

Did GammonEmpire accept US players after UIGEA?

Yes. Unlike listed operators such as PartyGaming, it continued serving Americans — CardPlayer reported in January 2007 that "US players are always welcome" there.

Is GammonEmpire related to GamesGrid?

No. GamesGrid is unaffiliated with GammonEmpire and has never offered real-money play.