Are trading cards a form of gambling?

[DigitalC]

It’s the same concept loot boxes use to get around gambling laws, as long as you get “something” with every purchase its not considered gambling as you always “win”.

[Jophiel]

@Chronos

Although, right from the start, ante was considered an optional rule, and most players opted not to use it (in all of my time playing, I only played for ante twice).

Yeah, I assumed the reason the ante cards were dropped was because most people hated playing for ante, didn’t play for ante and were subsequently annoyed by the ante cards in their pack.

[kenobi_65]

@Jophiel

Yeah, I assumed the reason the ante cards were dropped was because most people hated playing for ante, didn’t play for ante and were subsequently annoyed by the ante cards in their pack.

That was certainly a major factor, as well as the concern about ante causing tournaments to be seen by legal authorities as gambling. As per the MtG wiki:

Ante was intended to introduce an element of gambling to Magic, but it proved unpopular as many players did not like risking the loss of their cards, and rarely played for ante. There were also concerns within Wizards of the Coast that playing for ante might result in official tournaments being legally recognized as gambling. Were that to occur, tournament venues might require gambling licenses, or be forced to meet other requirements that would vary with jurisdiction. As a result, playing for ante is now classed as an unofficial variant format, cards referring to it are no longer made, and all older cards referencing ante have been banned in every sanctioned format. The last card to mention ante was Timmerian Fiends, printed in the 1995 Homelands expansion.