Pachinko

Pachinko is a Japanese gaming device used for amusement and prizes and is related to pinball machines. Although originally strictly mechanical, modern pachinko machines are a cross between a pinball machine and a video slot machine.

The machines are widespread in establishments called “pachinko parlors”, which also often feature a number of slot machines. Pachinko parlors share the reputation of slot machine dens and casinos the world over — garish decoration; over-the-top architecture; a low-hanging haze of cigarette smoke; the constant din of the machines, music, and announcements; and flashing lights. Modern pachinko machines are highly customizable keeping enthusiasts continuously entertained.

History

Pachinko machines were first built during the 1920s as a children’s toy, then emerged as an adult pastime in Nagoya around 1930. All of Japan’s pachinko parlors were closed down during World War II, but re-emerged in the late 1940s and have remained popular since then. Taiwan also has many pachinko establishments.

How it works

Players buy metal balls, at 4 yen per ball (250 balls for 1000 yen is the current practice), which are shot into the machine, with the chance of winning more balls.

Originally, machines had a spring-loaded lever for shooting the balls individually, but modern machines use a round “throttle” that merely controls how quickly an electrically fired plunger shoots the balls onto the playfield. The balls then drop through an array of pins, and usually simply fall through to the bottom, but occasionally fall into gates that make the machine pay out more balls.

The basis of pachinko is “rapid payout modes” and normal modes. Each machine has multiple “rapid payout” modes, which each have their own music, own default length of time, and their own random number generator multiplier. If the multiplier is increased, the payout is generally higher when a ball goes in a gate. The music and lights denote the change of mode. Some low modes only flash lights with no music. Specific gates activate different modes, and some modes can only be entered if multiple balls enter the same gate while the lights are flashing and music is going. Modes which are most difficult to enter have the largest multipliers and therefore largest potential payout.

Getting balls in a gate when in normal mode (no music, no lights):

* Usually gives a “small payout”, usually between 1-3 balls, determined by random number or preset low amount.
* Enters one of multiple “rapid payout” modes if it goes in a “mode initiating” gate.

Once in a rapid payout mode:

* Other gates open up, some having collectors (like pinball) and flaps that either open and close continuously at various (and customizable) speeds, or stay open; again details depend on mode, machine type.
* Lights flash, music may be present (all modes but lowest ones have music)
* (For low modes) it just opens more gates and doesn’t increase multiplier.
* (For mid level modes) Multiplier increased across the board for all gates.

In rapid payout mode, getting a ball into a specific gate may do any of the following:

* Enter an even higher rapid payout mode with a higher multiplier (highest modes, hardest gates to get the ball in)
* Simply extends the mode, and pays out a low amount. (difficult gates)
* Pays out large sums of balls, can be from 10 to hundreds of balls, again depending on mode, the gate, and the type of machine.
* Pay out a small or medium amount (usually an “easy” or accessible gate)

Rapid payout ends once the time expires without being extended.

Most current machines include a slot machine component and are known as pachisuro (????, pachisuro?), a portmanteau of “pachinko” and “slot machine”. In pachisuro, big winnings are ultimately paid not from the balls falling into gates but from the slot machine matches that follow.

Machine design

Machines vary in decoration, colors, lights, music, modes, as well as gate size, gate collectors size, the speed at which gate collectors open and close, and gate placement. Some machines simply have more, activate more, or have larger or more accessible gates than others allowing more balls in. Also, most machines have tweakable settings inside the machine (accessible by parlour workers only) to pay out more balls (changeable random number generator multiplier settings for each mode) or changeable mode lengths, allowing for a high level of customization. All these factors keep things interesting and leads to long time pachinko enthusiasts to the belief that certain machines are “good luck” or tweaked to be “good luck”. Different parlours have different types of machines and different settings, so enthusiasts may switch parlours if unsatisfied.

Winnings

The winnings are in the form of more balls, which the player may either use to keep playing or exchange for tokens, vouchers or a vast array of prizes. Some prizes as simple as pens or cigarette lighters, others can be electronics, bicycles, 50 cc scooters or other items. Under Japanese law, cash cannot be paid out, but there is usually a small exchange center located nearby (or sometimes in a separate room from the game parlor itself) where players can conveniently exchange tokens for cash. Often, a pachinko parlor carry a voucher for groceries at a supermarket nearby.

Smoking

Since Japan ratified the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2004, many public anti-smoking laws have been passed. In spring 2006, a number of the laws have begun to be enforced. The pachinko parlor is one of the few places smokers can go where the regulations have not caught up with them. There are preliminary discussions in the Japanese Diet to extend public smoking controls to pachinko parlors; however, no legislation has been proposed.

Children

Children are officially not allowed inside the pachinko parlors, mainly because of alcohol and smoking, and on that latter aspect, mainly due to concerns about accidentally burning children with cigarettes rather than the effects of secondhand smoke (smoking awareness in general has not affected Japan in the same way as the rest of the world). In Japan, a blind eye is cast towards children playing pachinko, so long as they don’t win much. Children often accompany grandparents or relatives who gamble, as strict enforcement would anger customers. Children often don’t have control to hold the power knob in the optimal position, the pachinko balls often bypass the entire circuit, creating pure profit for the parlor, so though children may play, they lose money very quickly, and adults tend to take over their game before any major damage is done. Babies of relatives are brought in for their “cuteness factor”, cheered on, to show off to their friends and just to see if they are strong enough to turn the throttle knob.

There is a children’s version of pachinko held at night markets and festivals in Taiwan that are home-made with plywood and nails. It uses glass marbles instead of steel balls, and one can play for toys, candy, and other prizes.

Legality and crime

In Japan, gambling is illegal, but pachinko parlors in Japan are tacitly tolerated by the authorities as “semi-gambling” and are not categorically considered as centers of illegal activity, and are considered on a case by case basis. Even then only the most obvious offenders will be shut down. Attitudes to Pachinko vary in Japan from tolerant to stigmatizing. In touristic areas it is very popular among foreigners (non-Japanese) both as a curiosity and as entertainment.

As a gambling activity, pachinko is widely held to have links to organized crime (specifically the Yakuza). There have also been links to the government of North Korea, which has allegedly been able to siphon funds from the sizeable population of Pyongyang-aligned ethnic Korean pachinko parlor owners in Japan. “Official” figures put the sum of remittances to North Korea from Japan at 3 billion to 10 billion yen in 2005, split between pachinko revenues and the importation of illegal methamphetamines. Not all pachinko parlours are owned by ethnic North Koreans. There are Japanese owned as well as South Korean owned parlours that operate in Japan.

Taiwan - (Republic of China) is another country with pachinko craze and it is another form of legalized gambling which bypasses laws.

Media

Wim Wenders’ 1985 documentary Tokyo-Ga contains an extended sequence about a Pachinko parlor.

Pachinko is occasionally referred to in songs, one of the more notable ones being Pachinko by The Pogues, written by Jem Finer for their final album, Waiting for Herb.

The song “777″ by “Fastway” is about getting a jackpot while playing pachinko and possibly a slight addition to the game.

In the manga Bleach, Yachiru refers to Ikkaku as a “pachinko-ball head”.

Pachinko machines appeared in the Neon East section on the console version of The Urbz: Sims in the City

In the manga and anime One Piece, Usopp uses pachinko balls as the regular ammunition of his slingshot (although he does use the slingshot to fire a myriad of other things, from shuriken to rotten eggs). This detail is not mentioned in English translations of the manga or dubs of the anime, because pachinko is not widely known in English speaking countries, leaving the reader or viewer to assume that the balls were just generic ball bearings or marbles.

The kaiju in one episode of Gosei Sentai Dairanger was pachinko themed. This monster carried over to an episode of the second season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (oddly enough, he remained pachinko themed, even though most kids in the west had no idea what pachinko was), which used Dairanger footage.

In the movie Kamikaze Girls there is a scene in a Pachinko parlor.

In The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, the main characters walk across a Pachinko parlor, downtown Tokyo, showing a massive affluence of people in the place.

Hobbyist

There is an active group of people in Japan and abroad who collect, tinker, tweak, and fix pachinko machines. The oldest designs had manual analog controls, but the newest have microchips and digital controls. Designs often change to suit fashion so a particular design of the past is considered valuable. Pachinko machines have been exported to many nations around the world as collector’s items and for hobbyists. These machines can be played for fun, rather than for profit, in the convenience of one’s home.