Pachinko is basically a mix between a pinball machine and slots, where the player uses shiny metal balls to land on bonus spots and win more balls. It first saw light as a children’s toy in the 1920’s and started its long history as a national obsession in the 30’s with the opening of the first commercial Pachinko parlor.
Because direct gambling is illegal, no money actually goes into or out of the machine. Instead you buy a bucket of balls from one of the attendants and exchange the ones you won for prizes. Prizes range from cigarettes to TV’s, but for the serious player these are a joke and a waste of your efforts. Instead of taking the balls to the prize table inside the parlor, serious players will take a walk just outside to the nearest filthy alley and exchange those balls for cold hard cash.
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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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The demand for Pachinko is outrageous too: $300,000,000,000 a year! Just for perspective, that’s four times the total profit of world-wide legal casino gambling, twice the annual turnover of Japan’s automobile industry and equivalent to the estimated yearly profit of the global narcotics trade.
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They use upwards of 5 million kilowatts a year to run the parlors and even put a strain on the grid after the 2011 earthquake. The appetite for gambling in Japan appears to be more ravenous than the most depraved moments of the American alcohol prohibition and has no sign of stopping. Because Pachinko is technically not gambling there are no real rules on how old you have to be to play. Officially they say you have to be over 18 to be in a parlor but in practice that rule is hardly ever enforced.
But I do see it’s appeal, the lights, shiny balls, noises and cash flow all make me wish I could go down the street and play one. Plus I’m a sucker for novelty. Unfortunately a quick Google search comes up with zero results for Pachinko in Canada or the US. There are a number of enthusiasts that have some in their personal collection and you can find a bunch of classic machines on Ebay, but for now I’ll have to settle for Nicholas Cage Pachinko commercials.
