You Don't Have To Be 21 To Play Pool 
I don't know what may, or may not, revive pool, but this is the way it was when I started playing...and when pool was STILL quite a POPULAR game.
I grew up in Southeast Missouri at a time when EVERY bar and place that sold alcohol required you to be 21 to enter unless you were with your parents.
Fortunately for me (or unfortunately in some people's eyes), I lived almost across the street from the ONLY "real" pool hall in town and I used to sneak in and watch people play until they would spot me and throw me out. This place had a bar, drive-in liquor store, 10 or so regular tables, 3 snooker tables, and later a bar table. The only other place to play in a pool room atmosphere was a "kiddie land" type joint on the other side of town, quite a few miles away. It catered to kids and families and there was no alcohol. Outside of these two places, the only places to play were in one of the dozen or so bars around the town.
The owner of the pool hall finally got tired of throwing me out and gave me a job cleaning tables, sweeping the floor, racking balls, etc. for $1 an hour, plus all the FREE pool I could play when I was 12 or 13. The town was small (10,000 or so) and he knew all the police so nobody ever bothered me or him about me being in there.
After getting a job there, I became even MORE infatuated with the game and spent almost ALL my non-school hours and Saturdays there (it was closed on Sundays). Over the course of 2 or 3 years, I evolved from a being a "banger" to being able to play so well that NOBODY in the town would play me EVEN-UP by the time I was 15 or 16. During the school season, I was playing around 8 hours a day, EVERY day, except for Sundays. During the summers, I played even more hours a day.
The owner became my backer and he would stake me against anyone who came in to play. He had a standing instruction for me to QUIT working at any time somebody would come in and want to gamble. He told me to take whatever money I needed out of the register and make the game and play.
We also travelled around the area to different towns with bars and pool halls and he would take me in and say, "this young kid will play anybody in here for the money" and we would go from there. Out of the many times this happened, I can only remember a couple of times that we didn't leave winners.
When I wasn't travelling with him, I had several other backers that would take me around to various places. I was so well known in the MAJORITY of the bars, that they wouldn't bat an eye when I came in and they also served me alcohol out in the open.
As a matter of fact, I sat at the bar in the Shiloh Lounge with the Dunklin County Prosecuting Attorney at the time...Charley Cable was his name I think...we bought each other drinks when I was in my teens. Same goes for my high school teachers...we would be in the same bars until midnight or later and then see each other in school the next day. For what it's worth, I managed to do this and stilll stay on the National Honor Society roles in school.
When I was 15 or so, I had already played numerous players games of one-pocket or snooker for $100 a game and games of 9-ball for up to $20-50 a game and races for several hundred. This was in the late 60s and early 70s when $100 was more than most people's weekly paycheck.
I never expected a "set" percentage of the winnings for playing, but I also never had to pay anything back should I lose (which was VERY, VERY rare). He usually gave me 10-20% of the winnings, which more than satisfied me because I loved the game and the competition...especally against players who were WAY older than me and who were SUPPOSEDLY able to beat a skinny 15-year old.
I can remember my mother coming into my room one morning to get my clothes to put in the laundry. When she emptied out my pockets, she found about $1,500 in my jeans and was SURE that I had robbed somebody or some place until I convinced her that I won it playing pool. I always used that argument when my parents urged me to get a job. I would counter with the fact that my older brother worked full-time at the local ice plant and he didn't make $100 a week..
I think that may have been the most money (my cut) I had ever made after a single night of shooting pool back then. I can remember playing this match until this day, even though it was more than 40 years ago. I was playing a guy named Jimbo Harris and his backer was some local farmer with a lot of money who seemed to think Jimbo was the man to beat.
We played in Herman Trout's Motel in Holcomb, MO. The motel had a diner-type restaurant in front with a bar table and it was open 24-hours a day. If anybody knows of this place, they know that card games, dice, whoring, drug selling, and every other kind of activity was going on in the back rooms a lot of the time...most of the time, in fact. If you want to read more about Herman and his motel, check out this link. It will give you an idea of the kind of places and people I was around during my formative years of pool playing...LMAO.
http://crimemagazine.uitest.info/wake-riot
(Here is an excerpt from the story in the link above:
"Creighton was dead. But Herman Trout was living in Holcomb, Mo. He owned a motel there, and was rumored to be running a poker game and being involved in other illegal activities. A few years earlier he'd murdered a man, and had gotten off with a $500 fine and jail time.
I called down there, and Mrs. Trout said Herman had suffered a stroke and couldn't talk to me. She said Trout didn't even remember being in prison, and suggested I direct my questions to Raymond Scott, sheriff of Dunklin County, Mo.
So I went to Holcomb, a sleepy little town in the Missouri bootheel, and checked into the Trout motel. I went to the local tavern/pool hall and casually asked about Trout. He was well known in those parts, but the people were reticent about discussing him.")
Me and Jimbo played 9-ball, 2-shot push out, on the bar table from about 9 PM one night until about noon the following day before they either ran out of money or quit. Jimbo was no slouch, but I was easily beating him 2 or 3 games to every 1 that he managed to win.
My backer, and several others were making side bets all during the match. I don't know exactly what my true winnings were, but it was in the SEVERAL thousands and I was given $1,500 for playing.
As well as I played at the time, I NEVER ONCE entered one of the tournaments at the "kiddy land" pool hall that my backer also owned. I had no desire for trophies or what little money they paid out and I had a standing offer to play the winner at MY pool hall for whatever money they wanted. VERY FEW ever came my way.
I know that Country Calvin and his brother (catpool9 on here) know of this area and its going ons at the time because Calvin has played at some of the same places in this area. Action places were the Cardwell Country Club in Cardwell MO, the 108 Club in Arbyrd MO, the Sportsman's Club in Kennett MO, the Idle Hour bar in Haiti MO, and several other bars throughout the region. I also used to drive to the Longbranch (or Longhorn) Club in Dyersburg TN to gamble on occasions and to Collinsville IL (right down the road from where Minnesota Fats lived and where the Jansco Brothers held their yearly tournaments).
I think I have rambled on a bit too long here, but I guess the moral of the storyI was trying to convey is "you don't have to wait until you are 21 to begin playing pool, no matter what the law says".
Aloha.
