During the 1800s, the term "poolroom" actually denoted a place where people could lay down bets on racing horses. The word "pool" came to describe the act of ante-ing into a collective bet placed on a billiard game.
It almost seems as if gambling has always been inherently intertwined in pool. Movies like "The Hustler" and "The Color of Money" only reinforced pool's dirty little secret.
Apparently Thomas Jefferson wasn't a big fan of the sport, which likely evolved from a lawn game played in northern Europe in the 1400s. Near the end of his life he mentions billiards in his penned "Thoughts on Lotteries."
In the paper, the third president opined that some games of chance "produce nothing, and endanger the well-being of the individuals engaged in them, or of others depending on them. Such are games with cards, dice, billiards, etc."
It has been widely disseminated that Jefferson intended Monticello's Dome Room to be a place where billiards could be played. Jefferson scholars such as Merrill Peterson have refuted that.
The conflict of gambling seems to have plagued pool for centuries. There are purists who definitely feel gambling has caused pool's great demise in popularity.
Pool has had its ups and downs. Scholars and pool scientists have examined the reasons why.
Here is an interesting article about pool, if you care to read it: Billiards Parlors Took Style Cues from Patrons [Retrieved 23 August 2009]
A 1906 advertisement touting the establishment read, "After a day of toil, worry and mental fatigue, what better way is there of spending a social hour or so with a few jovial and merry friends in the good old scientific games of pool or billiards."
Scientific games of pool or billiards? Ah, the lifestyles of the rich and famous. That's the way it used to be in pool.
Maybe it's the name "pool" which has plagued this sport/game we have all come to love. Word origins have always intrigued me, and so I found the article interesting; thus, the reason for me sharing it with this forum.
That said, pool without gambling is like a party without cocktails. Who ever came up with that word "cocktail"? :grin-square:
It almost seems as if gambling has always been inherently intertwined in pool. Movies like "The Hustler" and "The Color of Money" only reinforced pool's dirty little secret.
Apparently Thomas Jefferson wasn't a big fan of the sport, which likely evolved from a lawn game played in northern Europe in the 1400s. Near the end of his life he mentions billiards in his penned "Thoughts on Lotteries."
In the paper, the third president opined that some games of chance "produce nothing, and endanger the well-being of the individuals engaged in them, or of others depending on them. Such are games with cards, dice, billiards, etc."
It has been widely disseminated that Jefferson intended Monticello's Dome Room to be a place where billiards could be played. Jefferson scholars such as Merrill Peterson have refuted that.
The conflict of gambling seems to have plagued pool for centuries. There are purists who definitely feel gambling has caused pool's great demise in popularity.
Pool has had its ups and downs. Scholars and pool scientists have examined the reasons why.
Here is an interesting article about pool, if you care to read it: Billiards Parlors Took Style Cues from Patrons [Retrieved 23 August 2009]
A 1906 advertisement touting the establishment read, "After a day of toil, worry and mental fatigue, what better way is there of spending a social hour or so with a few jovial and merry friends in the good old scientific games of pool or billiards."
Scientific games of pool or billiards? Ah, the lifestyles of the rich and famous. That's the way it used to be in pool.
Maybe it's the name "pool" which has plagued this sport/game we have all come to love. Word origins have always intrigued me, and so I found the article interesting; thus, the reason for me sharing it with this forum.
That said, pool without gambling is like a party without cocktails. Who ever came up with that word "cocktail"? :grin-square:
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I have a new computer and I'm discovering that sometimes Vista causes me problems like that... even if I use the control button when cllicking on the link. In this case I was taken to the site but there was no content.
