Pachinko: A Very Japanese Gambling Addiction
For a long time the Pachinko prize trade was run by the Yakuza and has always been considered a gray market. Eventually the police smoked out most of the mob bosses and started to run the parlors themselves, now a parlor will often be run by a retired officer and active officers regularly patrol the parlors. As if bulking Yakuza security guards and watchful officers isn’t enough to keep you from cheating, each has developed a unique stamp they put on the balls to discourage foul play. This has lead to people collecting balls from various parlors.
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