One thing I think you need to serious look at, and to seriously ask a lawyer that has a working knowledge of gambling laws, is are you now trying to turn the game into an online style poker thing. People pay for cards (chips), you charge a fee for the tourney, how is this different from online poker? You may call it a game, but how would the legal system see it. If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, then it is a duck.
The idea is to encourage only serious players to join.
I was a serious player, just not a rich player able to afford the entry fee for the $500.00 dollar poker table. I made several comments on post about the ranking system. IF you really had a concern about the Serious player you would have looked at the ranking system. Serious players????are you serious???? Why during daily quest do I as a serious player in the bronze or the silver or gold league, need to do battle against people ranked 500 spots higher than me and are in the champion league....Serious Player's, yeah right your serious players are so serious that they have to step down into the bronze league to maybe win a game or to during the dailies because they can not in reality.....what....win...a game or two....in the league they belong??? Serious - what is a rich serious player doing preventing poor serious players from progressing in the Daily Quest? Why do the Bots get to see our cards and then run screaming from the arena in a fit of fear, and wasting my time for no reward? Why do I not get a win when that happens just because they can not see my cards??? You keep throwing the word serious player out there, when you really are saying only those with money. Just like going to vegas, if you are a serious poker player, you can get in the big payout tables if you have enough money, the rest of the serious players sit at the smaller buy-in tables. You are turning this into an online gamble, and you really should have a lawyer look at your most recent choices about game play/buy in.