R.E., Gambling = Seedy.
I've seen ( thousands of hours of it, actually ) plenty of plenty of people gambling at pool, for a LOT of money, spanning 5 decades, who were perfect gentleman ( and ladies ) , never did business, never cheated anyone, never got out of line or acted out. They gambled. They won. Or they lost. Then they went on their way...
Then, I've seen ( on too many occasions to even begin to list ) people who would sell their dead mother down the river to win a game of 8 ball. In league. For nada. For zilch. For not a dime. I've seen cues broken. I've seen overt and semi-covert cheating. I've seen screaming matches. I've seen fall-down drunks trying to play, not getting there ( go figure ), then blaming everyone and everything, except themselves, for not getting there.
Are there gamblers who cheat and scream and do business and fight and break cues? Of course. Are there league-sters who are perfect gentlemen, play by the rules, never complain, who you would trust driving your brand new Lamborghini? Certainly.
Branding pool as "seedy" simply due to gambling is a misnomer and a huge disservice to the pool world. And saying league pool, on its own merit, is what needs to represent pool, is also a misnomer and a huge disservice to the pool world. The issue is with the people who misrepresent pool. Period. Whether they're gambling or not gambling makes no difference whatsoever. The main issue is, there is/are no regulatory bodies in place to "regulate" the game. In golf, if a player say, spits into a golf cup/hole because, say, he's upset he just made an idiot of himself by 4-putting on world-wide tv ( yes, Sergio, you... ), he is fined a s**t-ton of money, vilified by every living human, left to twist in the wind until he apologizes and promises never to do it again. If he ( or she ) ever DOES do it again ( and for the record, at least on the PGA, it's never been done twice so this is speculation ), you can be fairly confident his ( or her ) playing days as a professional are over. And the process is pretty quick. Same with all pro sports. N FL. MLB. NBA. Across the board, by and large. There is no such thing in pool. for myriad reasons. Until there is that regulatory body, the fights will continue, the cues will be broken, the cheating will happen, the business will be done... and poor, dead mom will continue her long, lonely trip, floating down the river.
Now, would gambling be accepted by said regulatory entity? Probably not, due to many reasons, mainly being, it's not legal in most places. But the point here is, equating gambling with seedy is unfair and misses the mark by a country mile. I've seen a ton more seedy dive bars in which league is played than I've seen seedy dive pool rooms. And, yes, again, are there clean, nice, safe bars? Yes. Are there seedy, dive pool rooms. No. ( Ok, kidding... ) Yes. But, again, it's the people who are responsible. Not the venue. And not gambling, or absence of same.
Simply my .02
