Has Gambling Hurt Pools Popularity?

[memikey]

.....You can't even compare pool to golf. It is, IMHO, ridiculous. Look at the payouts in golf compared to pool. If a pool player could make $600,000 coming in second place, like the golfers do on the PGA tour, you might see a different caliber of pool player on the horizon. There would be, in fact, something to shoot for. Most pool players today are struggling to survive, much less come out ahead. The majority of pool players who do come out ahead aren't competing professionally. Rather, they sought their niche elsewhere in the pool industry.

JAM

JAM..........you seem to have perhaps slightly misunderstood the comparison Secaucus Fats (and others) were making with golf. Fats was of course not comparing the professional golf industry with the professional pool industry, he was comparing the gambling habits and behaviour of ordinary everyday amateur golfers to the gambling habits and behaviour of ordinary everyday pool players.

Millions of amateur golfers worldwide (and some professional golfers), quite possibly in bigger numbers than in pool, gamble with each other on any given day of the week. The nature of their gambling, the way they handle their transactions and the overall generally dignified way this is dealt with, has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with whether or not some golfer on the telly is earning $600,000/- for coming second in a PGA Tour event.

Furthermore, the nature of the beast (pool, pool players and pool halls) is such that even if your Keith was picking up $600,000/- for coming second in a highly promoted and sponsored televised Pool Tour event, the chances are that at the same time as he potted the last 9 ball to collect his cheque, there would be thousands of amateur players in pool halls all over the country scamming, sharking, cheating, dumping, fighting, stealing, borrowing and generally behaving like low-lifes.

Sorry but that's how it is

Secaucus Fats was merely musing why that might be so

 

[Inzombiac]

I think a lot of people are afraid of pool. I walked into a pool hall the other day to play and some guy came over to shoot on my table so he wouldn't have to pay. I says okay and we played a few. I beat him pretty easy and he gets this angry look on his face and asks me, "Are you some kinda hustler?"

And I tell him no, I am not a hustler I just play a lot, and in order to be a hustler I'd have to take more off of him then a little bit of pride. I told him we should play more and I could even show him some stuff if he wanted but he wouldn't have anything of it.

My point is, piggybacking off of the pool vs. poker posts, that a poker amateur will play just about anyone in poker because they lean on that luck factor and it builds up their confidence enough that they think they can take on a pro, even going so far as to write off any luck involved at all. Whereas in pool, people will play you if they think you suck but the second they realize that you're not a banger they stop wanting to play, or even wanting to get better, label you a "hustler" based off of some stereotype they saw in a movie, and then move on to easier game. The only people who play me are drunk people from my bar and people I know... it frustrates me to no end.

 

[JAM]

JAM..........you seem to have perhaps slightly misunderstood the comparison Secaucus Fats was making with golf. He was not comparing the professional golf industry with the professional pool industry, he was comparing the gambling habits and behaviour of ordinary everyday amateur golfers to the gambling habits and behaviour of ordinary everyday pool players.

Millions of amateur golfers worldwide (and some professional golfers), quite possibly in bigger numbers than in pool, gamble with each other on any given day of the week. The nature of their gambling, the way they handle their transactions and the overall generally dignified way this is dealt with, has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with whether or not some golfer on the telly is earning $600,000/- for coming second in a PGA Tour event.

Furthermore, the nature of the beast (pool, pool players and pool halls) is such that even if your Keith was picking up $600,000/- for coming second in a highly promoted and sponsored televised Pool Tour event, the chances are that at the same time as he potted the last 9 ball to collect his cheque, there would be thousands of amateur players in pool halls all over the country scamming, sharking, cheating, dumping, fighting, stealing, borrowing and generally behaving like low-lifes.

Sorry but that's how it is

Secaucus Fats was merely musing why that might be so

I can relay some pretty raunchy gambling matches with amateur golfers, to include dumping, hustling, and shooting air barrels.

The problem with the comparison with golf and pool, though, IMHO, is that the professional platform of golf is way, way, way different than the professional platform of pool.

When I see the hot dog-eating guy with his own Miller Lite commercial on TV, replacing Steve Mizerak, it speaks volumes about how American deems pool as a sport.

Gambling hasn't hurt pool's reputation, and neither has its players. The American pool culture members, though, with their multi-faceted opinions about pool players isn't helping pool as a sport either. The pool industry seems to have turned its back on investing any funds in pool to make it desirable to attract younger players. If there isn't any tournament trail, there won't be any players. If there aren't any players, there won't be a sport. Gambling doesn't even enter into the equation, IMHO.

JAM

 

[Walt Frazier]

No comparison

Growing up I never played pool. In fact my Mom said I shouldn't go to the local pool hall because it was a trouble area, places where people got beat up and gambled.

Does anyone else feel that gambling and the stigma associated with pool is one of the major reasons that the game is not as main stream as it could be?

I am fortunate enough to have stopped listening to Mom when I was 35 (two years ago) and have now picked this incredible game up

The money that's won and lost in pool gambling is pale in comparison to that of many other sports or games ie poker,boxing,horse-racing and yes even golf.Millions of dollars are wagered on the greens whether you know it or not.As a matter of fact,the golf course is where a lot of deals or made.

IMO pocket billiards has always been frowned upon by middle america because of it's past shady promoters,dishonest and crooked representatives of the sport.Not only that ,the media engine continues to depic pool halls in a seedy,dark fashion thru it's movies
It's no wonder that this great game/sport's professional players are the lowest paid/compensated pro's in the world(by and large)

 

[JAM]

The money that's won and lost in pool gambling is pale in comparison to that of many other sports or games ie poker,boxing,horse-racing and yes even golf.Millions of dollars are wagered on the greens whether you know it or not.As a matter of fact,the golf course is where a lot of deals or made.

IMO pocket billiards has always been frowned upon by middle america because of it's past shady promoters,dishonest and crooked representatives of the sport.Not only that ,the media engine continues to depic pool halls in a seedy,dark fashion thru it's movies
It's no wonder that this great game/sport's professional players are the lowest paid/compensated pro's in the world(by and large)

Now you're talking. Hear, hear, and a tappity, tap, tap!

I echo the fact that today's pros are not only the lowest paid, but they are also the most under-appreciated professional sports players in the world.

And I'm still pissed off about that hot dog-eating guy getting his own TV commercial, too!

JAM

 

[memikey]

Nice one JAM.........you forgot to mention that the dumping, air barrelling golfers were pool players on a day off

There are of course exceptions to every rule or trend.

Fully understand what you are saying about the problems of the pool industry but the image of pool halls will not be changed by a comparative handful of Pros getting an opportunity to earn hundreds of thousands of dollars in tournament prize money.

Like it or not, gambling, or possibly the way gambling is conducted in pool halls, or possibly even just the way people "perceive" gambling to be conducted in pool halls, is part of the cause of that image. If you don't believe that just ask the next newspaper who refuses to carry pool results in their sports section, why they have taken that decision. They may say because it's of no interest to their readers which is probably in the main true anyway, but they may also give you the underlying deeper reason which is that they don't want to be associated with such a low life pastime.......which is of course one of the reasons those deep pocketed sponsors won't touch it with a barge pole either. To think that factors within a gambling image don't contribute to perceptions like that is a little bit head in the sand, just an IMHO of course.

 

[Secaucus Fats]

Well, if you want to place blame on the demise of pool in America, look at the opinions of the members of the pool culture. They seem to despise players as if they're King-ons on the Starship Enterprise. What they seem to forget, though, is without them, there wouldn't be any professional pool. To keep bashing them as if they're monsters isn't doing a damn thing to help pool's survival in America.

To cultivate the sport, it would seem to me there should exist something worthwhile to shoot for. The majority of pool events, you have to come in first, second, or third to break even.

I have no problem with gabling as long as it's all up front. No B.S., no whining, no dumping. Play your set and if you win, you win, if you lose, you lose pay up or get paid end of story.

You can't even compare pool to golf. It is, IMHO, ridiculous.

Oh yes I can! They're both games of skill with a little bit of luck thrown in. I'm not a pro and neither are the vast majority of pool or golf players, so as an amateur, the disparity in pro earnings means nothing to me. What I was trying to get across is that lots of ordinary guys make friendly wagers on a golf course and nobody seems to know or care, but you have some no count wannabes in pool who by their behavior give the game a bad name.

Look at the payouts in golf compared to pool. If a pool player could make $600,000 coming in second place, like the golfers do on the PGA tour, you might see a different caliber of pool player on the horizon. There would be, in fact, something to shoot for. Most pool players today are struggling to survive, much less come out ahead. I agree with you in so far as professional players are concerned and I really truly wish there were some real money in the game for them. But that requires marketing, sponsor money and I'm not just talking about pool related sponsors, most of all it requires TV airtime. In order to secure all those things you have to have a marketable image. Perception is everything, if the public at large perceives pool players as dirt-bags then the game hasn't got a snowball's chance in hell of making it to the big leagues. The majority of pool players who do come out ahead aren't competing professionally. Rather, they sought their niche elsewhere in the pool industry.Again that's true for pros. But the vast majority of players are not professional players and it is that vast army of amateurs "the pool culture" that keeps the game alive. It is the amateurs who keep the rooms open, who buy the cues, who subscribe to the publications, who buy the books and videos, who pay the instructors, who buy the home tables, who keep the leagues and the regional tours going, who buy the tickets that put the asses in the seats at the big championship matches, who make up the largest share of the TV viewing audience. Rather than berating the pool culture, perhaps it would be good to listen to what we have to say after all when all is said and done we are the customers and no business gets ahead by dismissing the views of its customers. Just a thought.



JAM

I for one do not consider professional players to be the "scum of the earth" but if that seems to be the common perception then it is up to the players and the industry to work towards changing that image.

Fats

 

[Secaucus Fats]

JAM..........you seem to have perhaps slightly misunderstood the comparison Secaucus Fats (and others) were making with golf. Fats was of course not comparing the professional golf industry with the professional pool industry, he was comparing the gambling habits and behaviour of ordinary everyday amateur golfers to the gambling habits and behaviour of ordinary everyday pool players.

Millions of amateur golfers worldwide (and some professional golfers), quite possibly in bigger numbers than in pool, gamble with each other on any given day of the week. The nature of their gambling, the way they handle their transactions and the overall generally dignified way this is dealt with, has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with whether or not some golfer on the telly is earning $600,000/- for coming second in a PGA Tour event.

Furthermore, the nature of the beast (pool, pool players and pool halls) is such that even if your Keith was picking up $600,000/- for coming second in a highly promoted and sponsored televised Pool Tour event, the chances are that at the same time as he potted the last 9 ball to collect his cheque, there would be thousands of amateur players in pool halls all over the country scamming, sharking, cheating, dumping, fighting, stealing, borrowing and generally behaving like low-lifes.

Sorry but that's how it is

Secaucus Fats was merely musing why that might be so

Thank you Memikey, you hit it right on the head!

Fats

 

[Franky]

Why the need to blame?

Jam -- In reading your posts I often get the impression that you feel the need to place blame on someone or something for the lack of significant money in professional pool. I don't understand the desire/need to point fingers to indicate blame for this (outside of misappropriated tournament funds). It saddens me a bit to think that someone so deep in the pool world feels the need to blame others in the pool world for this. If I'm misinterpreting you, please clarify.

There are many factors that have contributed to low payouts throughout the years. Far too many to be able to squarely place any blame methinks.

I guess I just don't understand this, "where's all the money for the pros" mentality that I seem to be hearing from various people. Sponsorship monies come when you have a ton of people interested in viewing an event who will see the sponsored product advertisements. Without a large, interested spectator base, pool will unfortunately never consistently have big money sponsors.

I salute all professional players that keep the interest of the sport as a whole in the back of their minds when they play in televised events, give exhibitions, give lessons, or simply respond to questions from players/fans. Its too bad there's not enough cash in the tournaments right now, but keep being ambassadors of the sport, and hopefully we'll get there.

 

[JAM]

Nice one JAM.........you forgot to mention that the dumping, air barrelling golfers were pool players on a day off

There are of course exceptions to every rule or trend.

Fully understand what you are saying about the problems of the pool industry but the image of pool halls will not be changed by a comparative handful of Pros getting an opportunity to earn hundreds of thousands of dollars in tournament prize money.

Like it or not, gambling, or possibly the way gambling is conducted in pool halls, or possibly even just the way people "perceive" gambling to be conducted in pool halls, is part of the cause of that image. If you don't believe that just ask the next newspaper who refuses to carry pool results in their sports section, why they have taken that decision. They may say because it's of no interest to their readers which is probably in the main true anyway, but they may also give you the underlying deeper reason which is that they don't want to be associated with such a low life pastime.......which is of course one of the reasons those deep pocketed sponsors won't touch it with a barge pole either. To think that factors within a gambling image don't contribute to perceptions like that is a little bit head in the sand, just an IMHO of course.

Maybe you are more familiar with pool players gambling than golfers, but I can assure you that there's so-called "perceptions" established with golfers, too. We just don't read about them as often on AzBilliards because this is a pool forum, and MOST, if not all, of the readers of this forum have more knowledge of POOL gambling as opposed to GOLF gambling.

JAM

 

[memikey]

The money that's won and lost in pool gambling is pale in comparison to that of many other sports or games ie poker,boxing,horse-racing and yes even golf.Millions of dollars are wagered on the greens whether you know it or not.As a matter of fact,the golf course is where a lot of deals or made.

IMO pocket billiards has always been frowned upon by middle america because of it's past shady promoters,dishonest and crooked representatives of the sport.Not only that ,the media engine continues to depic pool halls in a seedy,dark fashion thru it's movies
It's no wonder that this great game/sport's professional players are the lowest paid/compensated pro's in the world(by and large)

Very true.

 

[JAM]

Jam -- In reading your posts I often get the impression that you feel the need to place blame on someone or something for the lack of significant money in professional pool. I don't understand the desire/need to point fingers to indicate blame for this (outside of misappropriated tournament funds). It saddens me a bit to think that someone so deep in the pool world feels the need to blame others in the pool world for this. If I'm misinterpreting you, please clarify.

You feel that I need to place blame on someone or something? This is quite laughable. In fact, it is the majority of readers on this forum who continue to place blame on the pool players themselves for the demise of pool, and I tend to have a different opinion. I am in the minority with my opinion, but, of course, I see things from a different vantage point than some. When the collective fingers are pointed at the pool players, that is when I stand up and voice my opinion.

Now I clarified this for you. I do not desire to argue or engage in any negative back-and-forth colloquy. My opinion is mine, and you are certainly entitled to yours. I will continue to state my opinion when it pertains to placing blame on pool players.

JAM

 

[memikey]

Maybe you are more familiar with pool players gambling than golfers, but I can assure you that there's so-called "perceptions" established with golfers, too. We just don't read about them as often on AzBilliards because this is a pool forum, and MOST, if not all, of the readers of this forum have more knowledge of POOL gambling as opposed to GOLF gambling.

JAM

JAM......Last year I won a qualifying tournament entitling me to compete in The European PGA Seniors Tour Championship (total event prize money $500,000/-). I accepted the invitation to compete but elected to retain my amateur status by waiving my rights to any prize money that I might win......turned out good decision cos I played like a camel

I have been lucky enough in the comparatively short time since I took up golf seriously to have played with several US PGA Tour, and European PGA Tour professionals and to have earned amateur international honours.

Almost every Friday at this time of year my amateur partner and I take on two of our home club pros (off scratch,no handicap given as our combined handicap is only 2 in any case and we actually get a lot more competitive golf practice than the club pros have time for so its a pretty even match). The bet per man is the local equivalent of $200 front 9, $ 200 back 9, $400 the match and $100 birdies and nearest the pins on par 3's. Just about every other match I play in involves some kind of bet. We are comparative very small fry in the gambling stakes but I think you can safely assume that I know a little bit about golf and about what goes on in the golf gambling world

If any AZB site golfers would like to see our home club, which is a regular European PGA tour event venue,it can be viewed at www.adgolfclub.com.

Sorry, nearly forgot the main point......I can assure you that in my experience of both pool and golf, although there are exceptions, golf gambling is generally worlds apart from pool hall gambling in respect of the manner in which it is conducted.

By the way...read the first post in the "Air Bullets......Ok?" thread just started, I rest my case

 

[JAM]

LEGEND: JAM (Green and Black), Secaucus Fats (Red)

Well, if you want to place blame on the demise of pool in America, look at the opinions of the members of the pool culture. They seem to despise players as if they're King-ons on the Starship Enterprise. What they seem to forget, though, is without them, there wouldn't be any professional pool. To keep bashing them as if they're monsters isn't doing a damn thing to help pool's survival in America.

To cultivate the sport, it would seem to me there should exist something worthwhile to shoot for. The majority of pool events, you have to come in first, second, or third to break even.

I have no problem with gabling as long as it's all up front. No B.S., no whining, no dumping. Play your set and if you win, you win, if you lose, you lose pay up or get paid end of story.

I'm at a loss as to what the correlation is of this response to the paragraph. Let me move on to your next red highlighted section.

You can't even compare pool to golf. It is, IMHO, ridiculous.

Oh yes I can! They're both games of skill with a little bit of luck thrown in. I'm not a pro and neither are the vast majority of pool or golf players, so as an amateur, the disparity in pro earnings means nothing to me. What I was trying to get across is that lots of ordinary guys make friendly wagers on a golf course and nobody seems to know or care, but you have some no count wannabes in pool who by their behavior give the game a bad name.

"No-count wannabes in pool"? I have a sneaky suspicion that your views are a little prejudged by your lack of familiarity with what REALLY goes on.

Look at the payouts in golf compared to pool. If a pool player could make $600,000 coming in second place, like the golfers do on the PGA tour, you might see a different caliber of pool player on the horizon. There would be, in fact, something to shoot for. Most pool players today are struggling to survive, much less come out ahead.

I agree with you in so far as professional players are concerned and I really truly wish there were some real money in the game for them. But that requires marketing, sponsor money and I'm not just talking about pool related sponsors, most of all it requires TV airtime. In order to secure all those things you have to have a marketable image. Perception is everything, if the public at large perceives pool players as dirt-bags then the game hasn't got a snowball's chance in hell of making it to the big leagues.

Try creating an image as an unsponsored player. You're usually scraping by to figure out how to get to the next pool tournament. If you're lucky, you can share a room with five other guys and sleep on the floor like a dog. Then you MUST create that good image and give your best performance in the tournament because, if you don't, you'll be a broke dog and have to figure out a way to get to the next event on the tournament trail.

The majority of pool players who do come out ahead aren't competing professionally. Rather, they sought their niche elsewhere in the pool industry.

Again that's true for pros. But the vast majority of players are not professional players and it is that vast army of amateurs "the pool culture" that keeps the game alive. It is the amateurs who keep the rooms open, who buy the cues, who subscribe to the publications, who buy the books and videos, who pay the instructors, who buy the home tables, who keep the leagues and the regional tours going, who buy the tickets that put the asses in the seats at the big championship matches, who make up the largest share of the TV viewing audience. Rather than berating the pool culture, perhaps it would be good to listen to what we have to say after all when all is said and done we are the customers and no business gets ahead by dismissing the views of its customers. Just a thought.

I hear plenty of what they have to say. They're the same eggs who ***** and moan about the promoters trying to make a profit when they charge a spectator's fee at the door. In fact, they think they should see it for free and like things just the way they are today. They do not desire to see professional pool elevate. I mean, after all, what other sport would allow them to see their heroes up front and close, like Efren Reyes as an example?!

I for one do not consider professional players to be the "scum of the earth" but if that seems to be the common perception then it is up to the players and the industry to work towards changing that image.

It's a common perception of your brethren of amateur players. You know, the ones who continue to support the sport today. The professional pool players are just lowly unpaid monkeys who should dance for free, while working on their image problem.

JAM

 

[JAM]

...Sorry, nearly forgot the main point......I can assure you that in my experience of both pool and golf, golf gambling is worlds apart from pool hall gambling in the manner in which it is conducted.

What experience do YOU have in pool hall gambling, Memikey? I've been following your posts for sometime now, and after seeing the multiplicity of pages develop in the threads located in the Non-Pool-Related Section, I'm going to have to insert my prerogative on THIS thread by stating to you that we will just have to AGREE to disagree. It happens all the time in Forum Land.

JAM

 

[Jerry Yost]

Gambling hasn't hurt pools popularity!!!!

Sadly...more people are interested in watching a guy eat 66 hotdogs in 12 minutes or watching a Rock Paper Scissors Championship that Budweiser was willing to sponsor with $50,000 going to the winner?

 

[Snorks]

Furthermore, the nature of the beast (pool, pool players and pool halls) is such that even if your Keith was picking up $600,000/- for coming second in a highly promoted and sponsored televised Pool Tour event, the chances are that at the same time as he potted the last 9 ball to collect his cheque, there would be thousands of amateur players in pool halls all over the country scamming, sharking, cheating, dumping, fighting, stealing, borrowing and generally behaving like low-lifes.

This to me is my biggest problem with 'gambling'. Not the known matchup of player A vs B, but rather the scammers, the air-barrel people, the fights, amount of $$$ owed, etc.

Why would you want your son/daughter to be exposed to this? Now, we have some fantastic teenagers whose parents come to the pool-hall, they play and then leave. They are well seasoned and experienced so those are not the kids I'm concerned with, but kids without this guidance can definitely go down the wrong road including drug and alcohol abuse.

So, in my mind, I guess its more then just gambling. I think it is the culture of pool that makes it difficult for the mass public to accept and want to promote it.

 

[Tom M]

No, not GAMBLING exactly...

IMHO, it's hustling, not gambling that hurts the public opinion of pool in general. More precisely, the perception of hustling is the problem.

STOP - read the above again. I did not say hustling is bad. I did not say hustlers are bad. In fact I did not make any type of judgement statement about hustling.

Hustling is a game in itself, but it would be hard to deny that when combined with pool, or one-on-one basketball for that matter, it completely changes the game. Some might feel that it removes the purity of competition, and what happens on the cloth is more about gamesmanship than skill and strategy. The popular media also portrays the hustling aspect in a very negative way.

Who knows how much this actually affects Pro-Tour pool, but it certainly doesn't help.

My 2 cents...

 

[memikey]

Jam........in what now seems like a previous life in Uk many years ago I lost everything I owned and cherished through gambling over a 10/15 year period, most of it on horses and dogs but a lot of it on pool in pool halls as I was a very keen player and played internationally in the 80's on the small tables. Frequent trips to the USA , especially Vegas, didn't help. I would bet on pool matches in Vegas when I knew little about US style pool and even less about the speeds of the two guys playing. I was an outright idiot as far as gambling was concerned.

Ironically had I stuck to only gambling on pool and only in my own matches the effects would have been minimal.

I lost everything.......and I mean literally everything and then some and reached homeless, rock bottom level, criminal level.

Luckily I then saw the light re excessive gambling over 20 years ago and that is now all just very distant history. I don't even play much nowadays although still enter the odd competition here or whenever and wherever I am travelling in connection with my work, probably only see the inside of a USA pool hall two or three times a year, if that, so your instinct is correct that my recent experience of pool gambling in USA is not a lot.

That being said, what is really being discussed in this thread is perceptions of pool hall gambling. Now whether you like to acknowledge it or not those perceptions described to you by several people in this thread are out there, irrespective of how much or how little recent first hand experience the people who happen to be telling you what those perceptions are, might have. Those perceptions could in fact be described to you by someone who had never gambled on or even played pool in their life. You also seem to jump rather quickly to the conclusion that when forum posters are talking about how gambling contributes to the negative image of pool they are talking about head to head gambling matches between high profile upper echelon players. I put it to you that most of them aren't referring to this at all, I certainly wasn't. They are generally talking about the circumstances and image surrounding gambling amongst pool hall nobodies, which outnumbers the high profile players matches by a long long way in all countries of the world and which unfortunately results in much of the unsavoury behaviour which posters have been describing. You also have made quite a point in here about amateurs in USA holding pro pool players in very low regard. That may or may not to an extent be true, I wouldn't know, but there is nothing in this thread to suggest that anyone posting in here holds such an opinion or to suggest that it's particularly relevant to what we're discussing.

Of course we can agree to disagree, that is part and parcel of what forum discussion is all about. I agree with that and will happily bow out at this stage.

However, with your own experience of the pool scene you must have some more positive input to give on this....... so as your last post before you drop the subject I (and I suspect some others) would genuinely like to know what changes, if any, you personally would like to see in pool hall gambling habits and practices in order to help promote the better image of pool you would like to see achieved as one rung on the ladder towards completion of the long road to pool pros getting better rewards, which you clearly and understandably passionately believe in. Perhaps on the other hand you think there is no negative contribution to pool's image by gambling and its related behaviour patterns in pool halls and that nothing needs to change in that respect. Right now pool pros have a product to sell which nobody seems to want and they and the pool industry movers and shakers are surely in no position to totally discount any exploration of factors that might be contributing to that situation, including gambling and how it might possibly be affecting image. Who knows, proper exploration of this might even lead to the conclusion that what is needed for the future of pool as an entertainment which will attract television viewers and sponsors is MORE gambling not less. Ignoring it as a potential issue isn't really an option.

 

[Tom M]

There are several ways to define the success of a sport. I would say that, in one aspect, pool has experienced a surge in the last 15 years, but this is primarily in the mainstream public at the grassroots level.

I realize that this is not very satisfying to pros and serious players, but the number of "recreational" rooms, which cater to the casual "date-night" player (and which are the subject of much disdain on this forum), has grown dramatically in my area. Furthermore, the number of pool tables sold into homes has grown pretty dramatically as well, I think.

That may be where it starts. I have always loved the game, but it was getting a home table that led me to start thinking more seriously about it. For me, this will probably lead to a much higher level of participation, whether that means joining a league or "paying for lessons" by getting my tail kicked for $5 a rack in a local room. Perhaps this is true for others as well.

Another 2 cents worth...