Almost everyone on this forum celebrates the great action days of Detroit, never mind that drug money fueled almost all of it. We are quick to forget the crimes of most good pool players, this dirtbag beating old ladies being one of the few beyond the pall. We all have sweet little old ladies in our families and can relate to the victims. Most of the easy money floating around pool halls is from people who can't legally declare the income. The rest comes from gambling addicts that can't resist throwing good money after bad until they are broke. The other money is either small amounts or damned hard to get, smart money is tough money.
When I gambled nightly I was well aware I was taking money from pimps, drug dealers, gigolos, mostly lowlifes of all descriptions. Back then there were always a few hustlers around living on the margin. They weren't so much pool hustlers as hustlers chasing a dollar. Horses, cards, dice, all kinds of petty crime, occasionally some would dip into major crime. Some of the people that were nice guys at the pool hall went down for major crimes. I wouldn't have associated with someone that was robbing little old ladies but with no proof I wouldn't have turned him in either. I wasn't real fond of the police and had contacted them once about a prominent murder. They weren't interested.
I had to get a little older and gain a little social consciousness before all of the dirty money I won came to bother me. At the time I was just a shark among sharks and money was as much a way of keeping score as anything else. Of course I didn't give it back after the session was over! Part of me says money is money, it has no past. Another part says that the money I won meant I indirectly profited from the crimes that the person I took it from committed. Anybody in business takes money from criminals for goods and services without a thought, I did at my businesses too. Somehow winning it gambling seems different.
A morals issue I have that I can't really solve. My head says one thing, my heart another. The old picture earlier in the thread looks very very familiar. Probably mistaken but I'll never know for sure.
Hu
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When I was an action guy, I didn’t look for working people who were raising families.
I looked for wise guys...from my perspective, the wins were guiltless.
Coin-operated businesses were a big part of that action...money couldn’t be banked.
....and all the other illegal things.....bookies were the best action.