LONDON — Tongues are wagging across the world of competitive Scrabble. Allan Simmons, one of the game’s top-billed British players, has been barred from tournaments for three years after an inquiry concluded he had broken the rules of the word game.

Mr. Simmons, a former British Scrabble champion who has written several books about the game, was accused of putting a hand with freshly drawn letter tiles back into a bag to draw more favorable tiles. Mr. Simmons has denied wrongdoing.

The punishment, imposed by the Association of British Scrabble Players, made headlines in Britain.

Yet many organizers of tournaments where a fluency with words may spell victory or defeat seemed to tilt toward reticence on Tuesday. For a game played in the glare of open competition, its inner machinations were more opaque.

“For some unknown reason, I don’t think they want it to be public,” Len Moir, a tournament organizer in the English Midlands, said of the accusations against Mr. Simmons. “He is such a high-profile player.”