All this week, Barbara Wolberg of Newton wrestled with whether to buy her son a Texas Hold 'Em poker set for his 16th birthday, which falls on Christmas Day.
It's not as though poker is some dark, forbidden secret in the Wolberg household. Her son has played it with friends and on a computer. Yet before she gave her blessing to this next step, Wolberg wanted to think through the ramifications, to study all the cards in her own game of Parental Hold On a Minute.
“I would have absolutely no hesitation to buy it for him, but it's just the message behind it,” she explained. “I don't want to go ahead and give him free rein for gambling. It's not like I'm a prude and I'm so against gambling. But with a young kid — as much as it's fun — I don't want to encourage something that could lead to gambling at a later stage.”
Marie Raftes of Dedham, on the other hand, is fully prepared to comply with a request from her 14-year-old grandson that Texas Hold 'Em be one of the gifts he finds under the Christmas tree. In fact, she's looking forward to playing with him, since he recently taught her how to play the game.
“We have fun,” said Raftes. “All the kids are into this right now; it's a big thing. It's better than those damn video things, where they're glued to those computers.”
Once, gambling carried with it a whiff of vice, of back rooms redolent of cigar smoke, of steely-eyed guys you didn't want to mess with. But it's become harder to view gambling as the devil's handiwork when busloads of cherubic grandmas and grandpas routinely sally forth on day trips to wager at the Foxwoods Resort & Casino or the Mohegan Sun Casino. On college campuses and even in high schools, their grandchildren have embraced poker with the heedless zest of youth. State lotteries are thriving, and online gambling has made it possible to compete in cyberspace.
And now? Home: the final frontier.
Inside The Sharper Image store at the Chestnut Hill Mall, a supervisor who gave his name only as Jerry said gambling-related games are “a really hot item” at the moment. Gesturing toward shelves loaded with Texas Hold 'Em games, handheld poker devices, and “Casino Action” (which features draw poker, blackjack, and slots), he said the popularity of such games has “skyrocketed.” In fact, he said, earlier that day a woman had come in and bought six sets of a home poker game.
At the Filene's in the Chestnut Hill Mall, the strength of the trend can be found in not one but two displays: one in the men's department and one near a store entrance. The latter display, beneath a sign that reads “The Big Deal,” features a mannequin with playing cards peeking out of the breast pocket of his suit. Among the products offered are poker and blackjack sets, books on poker, revolving poker-chip racks, a Las Vegas version of Monopoly called “The Strip,” and neckties with card patterns.
According to Filene's spokeswoman Robin Reibel, sales of poker-related merchandise have been steadily climbing since August, to the point that now, she says, “we definitely consider it one of our top 10 gifts for the holidays. The whole category has done very well.” Rival retailers such as Sears and Target are likewise offering extensive lines of poker merchandise and other games.