JEDDAH, 1 July 2007 — Computer games have become a habit of daily life for many people, but there are some who can’t afford the pricey consoles and CD-ROMs. Nevertheless, where there are wills there are ways.
It’s common to see a computer gaming console wired to an old television set in the streets of some of the poorer districts of Jeddah. Around these improvised gaming parlors, youngsters gather and take turns shooting up virtual bad guys or playing a very old version of FIFA digital football.
It’s not just computer games either. Because it rains so rarely in Jeddah, it’s also common to see billiard tables outside that never seem to have been moved.
“I love playing billiards,” said Saleh Al-Majrashi, a 13-year-old resident of Al-Sabeel district, who seems to be an up and coming pool shark. Though he barely looms over the table, he plays with the skill one would expect from years of daily practice.
The table is actually rented from a Yemeni man and his brother charges a SR3 fee for each game. Saeed Hamid said that the table is hardly empty especially during the vacation season. “Sometimes I collect more than SR100 a day from the billiard table,” he said.
Muhammad Ahmad, a 14-year-old Saudi pool player, says the boys have adopted the same rules you would see in any pool hall in the US or Europe. “The loser pays (for the game),” he said.
The loser-pays rule has encouraged these kids, none of whom appeared to be from moneyed families, to hone their billiard skills so they can play for free. Ahmad recounts with fondness the day a 20-year-old man challenged his 13-year-old friends to a game of pool. “He was good, but not good enough to beat my friend,” he said with pride.
Not far from the pool table, a group of kids were gathered around an old PlayStation and a television set. Ali Al-Maghamsi, a 17-year-old local resident, says he charges neighborhood kids SR1 or SR2 per game, depending on which game they want to play. “We run a soccer league here,” he said as a couple of youngsters were playing football on a 14-inch television screen.
Al-Maghamsi, who works part-time in a mechanic shop, said he is thinking of getting a second computer console and used TV to double his income. “Sometimes when we organize a league, the demand gets crazy,” he said. “We create teams from the district and sometimes from neighboring districts and challenge each other until the last team stands.”
Al-Maghamsi even uses some of the money he earns from the entry fees for these competitions to buy a small trophy to present to the winner.
