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Move over,
PlayStation 2. Santa's sleigh may be too packed with poker
paraphernalia to fit in last year's must-have games.
Stores in
North Jersey 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 holdem 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 holdem 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 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 company, 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."
Holiday
sales have far exceeded expectations. Toys "R" Us ran out of
poker gift sets in the last few weeks, and has reordered twice
already, Kling said. Nordstrom sold out too - the deluxe
version - and asked United States Playing Card to airship a
new load to keep up with demand. Sam's Club named the "World
Poker Tour" set its Wow Item of the Year, because sales were
so exceptional.
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. "I got two calls yesterday, both 19, both
great athletes, both drawn by the competition but no longer
able to focus in school because they're so hooked. For most
kids, it's just fun, but they have to remember that TV
highlights the excitement and the glamour. It doesn't show the
guys who become compulsive and ruin their lives."
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, 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." |
