Here's why pool is dying....

The only casino games where an individual player can have an advantage are poker and blackjack.

Poker is not a game against the house so that's irrelevant although you have to exceed the skill of the other players to overcome the house rake which can be done. That's common knowledge and I know people who play poker for a living.

As I mentioned upthread an individual player or surreptitious team can gain an advantage in blackjack but it is recognized without much difficulty and you're shown the door or sometimes dragged to the door.

The only way an individual wins at any of the other casino games is by enjoying a totally random run of variation that temporarily goes against the house. No one can count on that for a regular living or even for regular breakfast and dinner. Even if you're a counter in blackjack you'd better have enough bank to endure some very punishing swings in variation.

Yeah, lots of books are written and the gambling addicts waste their money on those, too.

Agreed. So the only sure way to make money as a professional gambler is to write a book claiming to have had a money making career as a professional gambler. :-)

My book will be out this fall.....
 
Be logical. Poker is a hell of a lot more expensive than pool. It's only cheap for a few because the losers are paying the cost. But the losers will keep playing because they figure they just need to get more lucky. They know damned well that they'll never get lucky enough at pool to win any money.

This must be a very well thought out trick question. I really hope you are amused.
 
gambling is the game

nobody gambles on a pool game an bars anymore since the advent of video lottery terminals.:mad:
 
People having less money means people are willing to bet less of it, though everyone still thinks they can win the lottery. Poker feels a lot more like a lottery than blind gambling, or even worse, people think they are great at it. I can assure everyone that OP is no poker genius. Poker takes just as much dedication to be good as pool requires. It's a LITTLE trendier, and will bring in more money by default seeing as the tournaments are filled with people who are just playing a lottery with slightly better odds.
 
For most people in the US they start getting serious about pool in bars on local leagues, APA, BCA. It's more associated with socializing and having something to do, a way to meet others etc, that's what gets people started and then regular competitive play over a -long period of time- at that level gets people to gambling levels of confidence, but gambling isn't a large incentive to learn to play or even a large part of the game any more.

If I were to list anything as having caused the demise of pool, I'd say tougher and tougher dui laws, making even normal social levels of drinking
prime targets for dui's. Many places you can get a dui at any level, not just .08 and above, and zero tolerance is the name of the game now.

It used to be you could go every week, have a couple beers, play your matches around the city wherever they are each week and go home safely no problem. But now if they don't get you for a taillight out, if they're not getting you in random roadblocks, if they're not following everyone out late at night, they are stalking bar parking lots just looking for potential revenue.

Find me one BCA or APA team without at least one person that has had a dui and you should get a prize, it's a rare thing not to have several people per bar that have gotten at least one and then weekly driving to bars around your local area becomes nearly impossible and quite a bit more risky.

I don't think people are giving up pool because they want to, they are giving it up because they've had to, and fewer and fewer people are getting their feet wet starting in the bar leagues and the typical way because of that dui limitation, it's constantly a worry and a hassle for everyone and on everyones mind and just not something you can always work around. Over 1.5 million dUI's are given out per year, that's a shit ton of dui's. We are not talking about just drunk drivers, dui's affect anyone who drinks at any level even one beer can get you one you don't even have to fail a sobriety test, if you drink and drive you loose period is the motto now.

Sure there are cabs if people could afford them all the time, but you'd have to be able to afford one every week.. Sure there are designated drivers, if that weren't an impossibilty for many to commit to that on a weekly basis. And sure there's public transportation, in some places, at some times of the day not so much late at night in most places.


More dui's = more death of the game... Non drinking atmosphere pool halls don't have the draw of the sheer numbers and variety of people that bars always have had in the past, and if you don't get that foot in the doorway of pool competition in bars you probably just won't get it anywhere these days ever. So less players forever in the future unless there comes a better form of transportation across the whole country for the average broke person that doesn't leave them open to dui, yet does allow the freedom to at least drink social conservative levels to get that foot in the door and started on the path of actually learning the game and giving a crap about whether it's on tv or not and knowing enough about it to find watching it interesting or betting on it worthwhile.

Maybe by the time we have self driving cars, all of them even for the average person, bar pool leagues bca and apa and all the levels above it will come back in popularity. Not until.
 
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Agreed. So the only sure way to make money as a professional gambler is to write a book claiming to have had a money making career as a professional gambler. :-)

My book will be out this fall.....

'How To Hustle One-Pocket in Three EASY Lessons'
 
Originally Posted by Maniac
Ummmm....it wasn't a question at all, it was a statement .

Maniac (still looking for the question mark )

Glad you pointed that out. This must also be a trick question.



If not must be a TRUE statement ;)....
 
Scott, I agree with you 100% and it's something I have been saying here for some time. We must look within the game first, there is a huge untapped audience out there of League Players we need to get more involved. It's sad, but I believe if you asked 50 of them to name a few of the top players in the US today the vast majority would not be able too. If we cannot tap this resource from within, how can we hope to move forward or even stand still where we are today?

The real crux of the matter is how to do that? We have to get them involved with the Pro's somehow. We have to get them to start watching Pool on streams and pushing to have airtime on TV. I think we all know that this will not happen because they are asked too, or out of the goodness of their hearts. They need to be enticed in, they need to feel they will possibly get something out of it, whatever that maybe. I have put forward several ideas previously but we need one of 'the organisations' to step up and take a chance, the market is huge!


Paul

How about the leagues ( APA, BCA, TAP ) start advertising streams. Just a thought that came to mind.

Imagine seeing on the homepage of the APA site "TAR 77 _____ VS ____ RACE TO 100 PPV"
 
Does anyone want to EARN anything anymore. Society has become lazy and unappreciative of skills and just wants the quick bang...
 
If I were to list anything as having caused the demise of pool, I'd say tougher and tougher dui laws, making even normal social levels of drinking
prime targets for dui's. Many places you can get a dui at any level, not just .08 and above, and zero tolerance is the name of the game now.

It used to be you could go every week, have a couple beers, play your matches around the city wherever they are each week and go home safely no problem. But now if they don't get you for a taillight out, if they're not getting you in random roadblocks, if they're not following everyone out late at night, they are stalking bar parking lots just looking for potential revenue.

Find me one BCA or APA team without at least one person that has had a dui and you should get a prize, it's a rare thing not to have several people per bar that have gotten at least one and then weekly driving to bars around your local area becomes nearly impossible and quite a bit more risky.

I don't think people are giving up pool because they want to, they are giving it up because they've had to, and fewer and fewer people are getting their feet wet starting in the bar leagues and the typical way because of that dui limitation, it's constantly a worry and a hassle for everyone and on everyones mind and just not something you can always work around. Over 1.5 million dUI's are given out per year, that's a shit ton of dui's. We are not talking about just drunk drivers, dui's affect anyone who drinks at any level even one beer can get you one you don't even have to fail a sobriety test, if you drink and drive you loose period is the motto now.

Sure there are cabs if people could afford them all the time, but you'd have to be able to afford one every week.. Sure there are designated drivers, if that weren't an impossibilty for many to commit to that on a weekly basis. And sure there's public transportation, in some places, at some times of the day not so much late at night in most places.


More dui's = more death of the game... Non drinking atmosphere pool halls don't have the draw of the sheer numbers and variety of people that bars always have had in the past, and if you don't get that foot in the doorway of pool competition in bars you probably just won't get it anywhere these days ever. So less players forever in the future unless there comes a better form of transportation across the whole country for the average broke person that doesn't leave them open to dui, yet does allow the freedom to at least drink social conservative levels to get that foot in the door and started on the path of actually learning the game and giving a crap about whether it's on tv or not and knowing enough about it to find watching it interesting or betting on it worthwhile.

Maybe by the time we have self driving cars, all of them even for the average person, bar pool leagues bca and apa and all the levels above it will come back in popularity. Not until.

Most idiotic post of the year. CONGRATULATIONS !!

REALLY ?? ""More DUIs = more death of the game"" ..... GIVE ME A FREAKIN BREAK. Were you even sober when you typed that drivel? They seem to be able to function in other "sports" without getting hammered and running into minivans filled with kids. Why can't pool? Here's a tip, take a cab, take a train, take a bus, or better yet, don't get drunk when you are out playing sports... just a thought...
 
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To simplify a few of the other comments:
If pool is dying (it seems to be doing well in some areas and almost dead in other parts of the country), the main reasons may be that most establishment owners are in it for the money and not the love of the game (you can be both!), and the lack of support by the TV sports networks.
 
Or it could be the continued insistence on here that gambling on pool is the same as playing pool.

I don't see anywhere that the OP wanted to play pool so badly that he just played pool. No, what I read was that he wanted to gamble so badly that he gave up on pool.

If all you want is to gamble, then the modern world has loads of ways much easier to get that rush than playing pool. If you want to play the game of pool though, because you enjoy the game, then you'll play the game and maybe even encourage a few others to enjoy it, too.

Excellent post. Well said sir.

KMRUNOUT
 
I didn't read through all the posts so I'm not sure if this was said already. Part of the problem with pool is that it's expensive to play. There are rooms that have all day specials, but that ends about 6 or 7 at the latest and then it can be as high as $15 an hour. Most people have jobs and cannot go play pool during the day for cheap. I feel like a lot of the top players today had pool tables in their homes growing up or their parents had a pool hall and they got to shoot for free everyday and be around that atmosphere learning from the better players. Pool halls have to find a way to change their business model. Florida has cheap pool and maybe it's coincidence but FL has a lot of strong players.
 
I agree. I've never quite understood why owners charge by the player and not the table. If you have four players on one table and are charged by player, each player is getting one half the play for the same fee as they would with two players. So folks tend to play two at a time. If you charge a flat table rate, you WILL GET MORE PLAYERS PER TABLE!...and you will sell more food and drinks!
In my previous post I forgot to mention a third critical reason for pool "dying": National organizations that profit immensely from fees and give little back to the game.
 
Most idiotic post of the year. CONGRATULATIONS !!

REALLY ?? ""More DUIs = more death of the game"" ..... GIVE ME A FREAKIN BREAK. Were you even sober when you typed that drivel? They seem to be able to function in other "sports" without getting hammered and running into minivans filled with kids. Why can't pool? Here's a tip, take a cab, take a train, take a bus, or better yet, don't get drunk when you are out playing sports... just a thought...

How many of those "other sports" are played in bars?


Read his entire post. He makes some good points.
 
Pool is not dying! It may be diminishing in popularity in the USA, at least the poolroom version is. But Pool is a growing sport worldwide, huge in China right now, with many millions enjoying the game daily and new players coming along at a rapid pace. Pool is not going away anytime soon. It remains a wonderful activity for singles, couples or entire families to enjoy. :thumbup2:

Pool went through some serious doldrums in this country in the 1950's, only to come back strong in the 60's and thereafter. Each succeeding generation must learn about the game all over again. And it's up to all of us to introduce it to them.
 
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