Poker's popularity pays off in spades

Lansing State Journal:Poker's popularity pays off in spades By Ruth Padawer KRT News Service Move over, PlayStation 2. Santa's sleigh may be too packed with poker paraphernalia to fit in last year's must-have games. Stores are flush with Las Vegas knockoffs: poker chips, poker tables, poker lamps, poker key chains, poker clocks, poker T-shirts, poker shot glasses, poker-print curtains and scores of poker books. Even stores that don't usually sell toys are cashing in on the craze. At Bed Bath & Beyond, alongside 12-piece wine-goblet sets, $79.99 sateen sheets and professional corkscrews, sit poker tables, electronic poker games and a $49.99 six-in-one casino suitcase. Even CVS has a Texas hold 'em gift set and a DVD game guide, both just in for the holidays. "Poker products have exploded this season," said Jim Silver, publisher of The Toy Book, a monthly publication that tracks the toy trade. "The television shows have really brought out the strategy of the game - the math, acting, psychological skills. With all the clever marketing, it's become really, really hot, especially for the 13- to 18-year-old boy crowd." The kindling was laid last year, with the introduction of the "World Poker Tour" television show, which quickly became the highest-rated show in the Travel Channel's history, with 5 million viewers per show. Bravo, Fox Sports Network and others soon followed - all of which did for poker what smoky backrooms never could. The stunning growth of Internet poker, available 24/7, fueled the explosion even more. "When we started broadcasting in 2003, we estimated there were 50 million poker players in the United States," said Tour spokeswoman Jackie Lapin. "Now we think it's closer to 100 million." Just how many are teens or younger is unknown. Nevertheless, there's no doubt that Texas hold 'em has been storming lunchrooms and teen hangouts like never before. "Me and my friends play it two or three times a week," said Tyson Betts, an eighth-grader at Tenafly (N.J.) Middle School who has won, or lost, as much as $60 some nights. "We saw it on TV and it looked so cool, the idea of suddenly winning money just from sitting there and thinking. My mom tells me not to win too much because she doesn't want me to take money from other people." Betts has used his earnings to buy official-weight clay chips ("Very cool, and you can do chip tricks with them") and a poker table ("The cards slide better and it makes it seem like you're in a casino"). Sports Authority now offers chips in every color and style. Sharper Image has a 300-piece set for $89.95 plus a $19.95 three-year replacement guarantee. Macy's sells poker calendars, coasters, dolls, chips and tables, plus a $79.99 Casino To Go. Spencer Gifts' display nearly swallows up the front of the store, offering not only gear for the game, but enough poker-themed accessories (would you believe poker-related room dividers?) to transform an entire teen pad. Barnes and Noble features more than 125 poker titles, including "Play Poker Like the Pros," "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Poker," "Bringing Down the House" and "The Tao of Poker." "I've been in the toy industry for 20 years, and I've never seen interest like this," said Scott Kling, vice president of sales for the United States Playing Card Co., which makes World Poker Tour and Bicycle cards and chip sets. "Unlike Cabbage Patch Kids and Ninja Turtles, this phenomenon is cross-generational: tweens, college kids, adults. Our poker business is up over 100 percent from last year." Of course, it's precisely that excitement that makes gambling experts uneasy. "For most kids, playing poker isn't a danger, but we have had lots of calls recently, especially from young people or from moms who worry about their sixth-graders losing $300 in a night," said Ed Looney, executive director of the New Jersey Council on Compulsive Gambling, which offers a test at 800gambler.org to identify addiction. Some parents do worry, even limiting the maximum bet, but others say the game hones social, math and decision-making skills. It's infinitely better than shoot-'em-up video games, they say, and not the sort of game a kid can play well if he's drunk or stoned. Besides, maybe poker will reshuffle the pecking order, as math whizzes out- compete jocks. "My 13-year-old son has totally given up video games for poker - but he plays for chips, not money," said Lisa Scarinci of Allendale, N.J., whose son has poker sleepovers and reads almost nothing but poker books. "My husband and I are not sure if we like all this - I wonder if we should worry more - but we're trying to see the bright side. He's learning to negotiate and psyche out his opponents and anticipate the other guy's next move." Meanwhile, the would-be card sharks are keeping busy. "Yesterday, I borrowed $10 from my mom and used $10 of my own and lost it," said eighth-grader Betts. "Then I borrowed $30 from my friend Devon and lost it. So I borrowed $30 more from him. I was so glad I won it back. I would have been in a really bad way because I had no way to pay him back. I was kind of nervous. But that's what makes it so exciting."