A skill game is a tournament where player intervention is decisive in determining the outcome of the tournament. In a skill game, a player with superlative ability should be able to consistently beat others with lesser ability.

Skill-games are most often offered as competitions in popular casual games, like Solitaire, Bejeweled 2, Luxor and Cubism in which players compete against other players for cash and prizes. All of the leading games sites, including AOL, MSN and Yahoo! and hundreds of other popular Web destinations, offer skill games on their sites.

Skill games are carefully engineered to specifically avoid the application of gambling laws by removing the chance elements. Unlike gambling games, no person can expect to win a skill game by mere random moves or as a result of one or more favourable chance events. For example a slot machine could be played by a chimpanzee with equal success as a human. This difference is recognised not only in practice, but in the law as well.

The Interactive Skill Games Association offers existing and prospective members an opportunity to join with other skill games operators to ensure that all industry competitors can compete in an interactive environment of the highest integrity. Additionally, the Association will fund ongoing legal research for the benefit of its members and will promote a broader and deeper understanding of the industry amongst regulators and lawmakers alike.