The phrase "an element of skill" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used when discussing activities or tasks that require a certain level of expertise or proficiency.
Example: "In competitive sports, there is always an element of skill involved in achieving success."
Alternatives: "a degree of skill" or "a level of skill".
And – like that moment that most of us experience when we realize that Snakes and Ladders lacks any element of skill – once the sense of purpose is gone it tends to stay gone.
Yes, it could have, but it does add an element of technical skill to road cycling, and obviously there's a lot of different aspects to road cycling that provide a very exciting race.
Resources were required to undertake data collection and analysis – for instance, ethical approvals were obtained for fieldwork; significant time was spent setting up appointments for interview and focus groups with policy makers, many of whom had competing schedules; TICH-GLUK notably trained staff to act as survey enumerators for an element of staff skills assessment.
Eventually someone made a machine with six flippers, adding a stronger element of skill to the game.
Even in tournament play, with the luck of the deal eliminated, there is an element of chance, blended with skill in a nice proportion.
This discrepancy had already landed America in hot water at the World Trade Organisation, thanks to a case brought by tiny Antigua, home to several online gambling sites.America's Department of Labour has given a nod to the element of skill, in some eyes, by last year recognising "professional poker player" as an official occupation.
One does not have to be a skeptic on par with, say, Aristotle, to doubt that this element of skill is anything more than illusory, but it is enough to exempt the machines from most states' laws barring home ownership of gambling equipment.
It may be conceived as a domesticated form of such medieval games as football, in which the size of the goals and the ball was radically reduced and in which, as a consequence, the element of violence had to give way to the element of skill.
But, according to the site's C.E.O., Steven Wolf, Ultrinsic doesn't count as gambling because of the element of skill.
That removes one old-fashioned element of skill and judgment, although it makes the teams happy because they can take the money they save on blown-up engines and spend it on enlarging the marketing department or buying a bigger hospitality unit.
