Ill even add that and say Pool hall junkies wasn’t even about gambling. It was about a guy and his struggles to get to the pros. It was actually stated gambling was a bad thing not gambling was good throughout the whole movie. It was even stated in the first scene that all Vince wanted was to go pro. He lost his woman over gambling for a while. He got his hand all jacked up. Was broke for a while. And he told his brother not to gamble and asked why his brother’s friend would take all his money to go on the road. Even at the end when Christopher Walken made it a point that he was a millionaire and the other guys backer(forget his name now) was throwing away everything he had and there was no reason to. He was inferring something. The point being why throw down everything on a game. It’s not worth it.
It’s all a matter of how you interpret the movie.
A friendly bet is usually what higher skills enjoy. $5 or $10 is still a bet.
In reference to high stakes gambling. I’ve never seen anybody post that those two pros are morons for playing a race to 100 for $20000 or $50000. It’s never frowned upon(from what I’ve seen). People get excited about those matches. Its all part of the game. Like it or not.
I debate PHJ was about being the second highest earner in the relationship. Oddly enough the foolish investments into pool paid off in a big way for his "girlfriend." She was the main benefactor of having a gambling pool playing boyfriend at a professional networking social event.
If there is a social commentary then it is women are the main earners and should be setting terms for standards of their husbands and their hobbies/occupations/entrepreneurship. Imagine PHJ with crypto and social media payments and deceptive couriers, it would be like a Hacker movie from the 90s.
If secret societies ever existed, there should be a secret society in pool. I would assume its because the bar is a great place to meet people. Not many people go out of there way to find a distinguished pool hall. Even if its in California. that is basically 3 main rooms.
If PHJ was set in NYC then maybe the gambling would be more organized and less who knows someone with cash.