Mike Thompson was owner of the Royal Billiard Hall. Based on newspaper accounts he was the target of law enforcement for several years. In 1904 he was given a minor jail sentence of four months for running a gambling establishment. Three other similar proprietors received equivalent sentences. Their attorney argued that they were generally good citizens, their businesses notwithstanding, and that their light sentences probably reflected the fact that the problem of gambling had declined in the years prior to 1904. Their operations were shut down, but evidently the next strategy by some was to operate under the guise of being a drug store. Clearly the battle between the police and the jointists was an onoing game of wits.