If you were ever asked to list the most popular recreational activities in Japan, what would it be? Probably sports such as baseball and soccer, karaoke, video games, movies, bowling etc. well with 18,000 halls in the country and one quarter of the population said to enjoy the odd game (30 million) pachinko is at the top of the list. Neon lights, smoke filled rooms, loud music and a row of customers seated with both eyes fixed on the machine before them.
Pachinko comes from the word "pachi-pachi" meaning the clicking of small balls. The origin is not clear but it would seem that the game was modeled after the American game called Corinthian, which was first imported into Japan in the 1920s. Pachinko was first played commercially in Nagoya in 1948 and its popularity spread across the country.
Pachinko is best described as a mixture between pinball and slot machine. The game machine looks like miniature pinball machine stood upright. Balls are valued at 4yen each. As in pinball the steel balls are shot onto the playing surface and bounce around through a network of pins. The object of the game is to have the balls directed to the small wining slot. Balls that land in the winning slot trigger a panel resembling a slot machine. If the same three symbols match up you have hit the jackpot and the machine spits out some balls. You exchange the balls for gifts such as cookies, chocolate, magazines etc.
How strange. These prices are then exchanged for cash at small outlets located outside the main parlor, but on the same lot as the pachinko parlor. These outlets are second companies set up by the pachinko parlor with the sole purpose of buying back the prizes. This is an elaborate scheme to bypass Japanese law, which forbids gambling and cash prizes in except for lottery, horse and other kinds of racing.
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