Games, especially games played for stakes, have been a subject of legislation since the ancient times. In medieval times and the Renaissance, gambling and legislating against it became more intense. Most of the laws on gaming are related to gambling. Nevertheless, there are laws and rules that aimed at suppressing games and gaming in general. This has been a very old practice that is also employed in modern times by authoritarian regimes. In various periods, games of chance, various other games and even chess were banned by both church authorities and secular rulers.
Games and gaming as historical sources