Making Magic judges official employees opens up a whole can of worms though. Are only the judges that judge at higher level events employees? If so, how do you set up a program to have lower level judges who do FNM? Do you have those separate? And, if so, how do you set up an appreciable difference between the two?

There's also the fact that becoming employees also leads to issues like having WotC legally responsible if a judge goes off and does something wrong. I could easily see someone suing Wizards for a judge making an incorrect call that cost them a match. Payments for being employees also causes issues, such as bringing the judges and Wizards into having to think about tax issues, including internationally. In some countries is also means being forced to pay for their healthcare if they're legally your employees.

Of course, I don't know enough about employing others, especially internationally, to say anything with certainty. Maybe they could technically sign them on as contractors or something. But I think the issue is much more complex than just hiring judges.

And, of course, hiring judges doesn't mean the actual issue of Slow Play being difficult to determine any easier. With the same rules it would have lead to the same call.