Pachinko

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Fist of the North Star pachinko machine, with slot machine component in the middle
Fist of the North Star pachinko machine, with slot machine component in the middle
Classic pachinko machine
Classic pachinko machine
Pachinko players inside a parlor, with trays full of balls.
Pachinko players inside a parlor, with trays full of balls.
Pachinko parlor at night
Pachinko parlor at night
Entrance to pachinko parlor in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan.
Entrance to pachinko parlor in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan.

Pachinko (パチンコ?) is a Japanese gaming device used for amusement and prizes. Although pachinko machines were 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.

Contents

[edit] 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 due to Japan's influence during their occupation in WWII.

[edit] How it works

There are many types of pachinko machines and parlor regulations, but most of them conform to a similar style of play. Players buy metal balls, at 4 yen per ball (250 balls for 1000 yen is the current practice), which are then shot into the machine from a ball tray with the purpose of attempting to win more balls. The pachinko machine has a digital slot machine on a large screen in the center of its layout, and the objective here is to get 3 numbers or symbols in a row for a jackpot.

Originally, pachinko 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. While most balls simply fall through to the bottom of the pachinko layout, occasionally some will fall into the center gate and start up the digital slot machine in the center screen. Every ball that goes into the start-up gate results in one spin of the slot machine, and the maximum amount of "credit" at any given time is 4 spins. This spin credit system is required because it is often the case that a ball will go into the center gate while a spin of the slot machine is still in progress. Each spin typically pays out a minimum of 3 balls, but the ultimate goal is to hit the jackpot and win a lot more. Contrary to popular belief, the program of the digital slot machine decides whether the player has a jackpot or not the moment a ball activates it, not when the numbers or symbols are actually spinning.

During the spinning of the slot machine, when the first 2 numbers or letters of the spin match up the digital program will almost always enter into "reach mode" where many animations and movies are then shown before the final outcome is known just to give the player a boost of added excitement. If the player does manage to get 3 numbers or symbols in a row to obtain a jackpot (average odds of this happening are around 1 in 330), the machine will enter into "payout mode."

Depending on what type of pachinko machine is being played, the payout mode usually lasts for 15 "rounds." During each round, amidst more animations and movies playing on the center screen, a large payout gate opens up at the bottom of the machine layout and the player must try to shoot balls into it. Each ball that successfully enters into this gate typically results in around 12 balls being paid out into a separate tray at the bottom of the machine, which can then be placed into a ball bucket for the player to do with as he or she wishes. The average total payout per jackpot is around 1250 balls, or 5000 yen worth.

After the payout mode has ended, the pachinko machine may do one of two things. Almost all of them employ the kakuhen system, which is where half of the possible jackpots on the digital slot machine (usually the odd number combinations like 111, 333, 555, etc.) result in the odds of hitting the next jackpot improving by 10 fold, for instance, from 1 in 330 to 1 in 33. Hence, under the kakuhen system, it is possible for a player to get 3, 10, or even more consecutive jackpots after the first "hard earned" one. Such a streak of jackpots is commonly referred to as being in "fever mode." If, however, the original jackpot or any subsequent jackpot is not a kakuhen combination, then the machine will enter into "jitan mode." Here, over the next 100 spins, under the original payout odds a "blossom" opens up near the center gate to make it considerably easier for balls to fall into it. To compensate for the sudden increase in the number of spins over this period, the digital slot machine will produce the final outcomes of each spin much more quickly, typically within 1 second.

Once the jitan mode has ended at 100 spins and no more jackpots have been made, the pachinko machine will revert back to its original setting.

Most current machines include a slot machine component and are known as pachisuro (パチスロ?), 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.

[edit] Machine Design and Payouts

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 customizable 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 lead to long time pachinko enthusiasts to the belief that certain machines are "good" and have been tweaked to have very high payout settings. Different parlours have different types of machines and different settings, so enthusiasts may switch parlours if they are unsatisfied with any particular one.

Pachinko machines also widely vary in the odds of hitting a jackpot, number of payout rounds, number of balls per payout, odds of getting a kakuhen, and number of rounds in jitan mode. The most common difference are the typical "old-school" machines that are hard to get jackpots on but pay out a lot, and the "ama-deji" or "yu-pachi" machines that are easier to win on but pay out relatively little (typically one-third the amount of the former). Old-school pachinko machines average about 1 in 330 odds of hitting a jackpot, 15 rounds per payout, 1250 balls per payout, 50-80% odds of a kakuhen, and 100 rounds in jitan mode. In comparison, the ama-deji/yu-pachi machines offer around 1 in 95 odds of hitting a jackpot, 5 rounds per payout, 450 balls per payout, no kakuhen, and 25-50 rounds in jitan mode. At present, the old-school pachinko machines are the choice of hard gamblers while the ama-deji-yu-pachi machines cater to those who just want to play pachinko for fun rather than profit, even though a person can still win a considerable amount of money on any good machine.

[edit] Strategies for Winning

In Japan, many books and magazines offer advice on how to earn a living playing pachinko. The variety of help ranges from simple tips to systematically finding a way to outsmart the parlors, but it is recommended that all players develop their own personal methods for winning as nothing is guaranteed. One of the most surefire strategies is to have an inside source tell you which pachinko machines have the highest settings. Some pachinko establishments offer such information as an incentive for joining their club membership, but it is always difficult to be able to use it to one's advantage as there is a high level of competition among fellow members to get their hands on good machines. On any given day, there is usually a long line of people waiting outside pachinko parlors hours before they are set to open. Also, given the fact that most parlors hold lotteries to see who the first hundred people to enter the parlor will be every morning, the odds of being able to get a good machine even with inside information are not so favorable.[1]

On a similar note, by observing trends in how particular parlors distribute good paying machines throughout their entire layout on a given day of the week, you can make a pretty good guess at where they are when the need arises. This becomes especially vital when you pick out your machine at the start of the day's gambling, for, as pachinko has become very popular in recent years, it is often the case that all the good machines are taken just after the parlors open in the morning.[2]

One of the most popular and well-practiced pachinko strategies is to stay at one single machine for the entire time the parlor is open even if it is not at a high setting. The logic behind this is that although the machine you are at may be programmed to give you a loss of 30% over the long-run, you should keep playing at the machine to minimize your losses and, maybe, if you are lucky enough, gain a small margin of profit. As a means to demonstrate this point, it has been observed many times that in the rare instance a particular pachinko machine goes over 1000 spins without any jackpots, it usually then shortly enters into kakuhen mode if someone continues to play it (within the next few hundred spins), which can last for 5 or more jackpots. One common explanation for this phenomenon is that some parlor managers may, albeit illegally, manipulate their machines as people are using them to give them a decent amount of jackpots once they confirm that they have lost a great deal of money just so that no potential future patronage is lost. Of course, many amateur players do not have the time or financial backing to gamble in this fashion, but they may be apt to try their luck if they find a pachinko machine that has gone over 1000 spins without providing any jackpots.[3]

Another common strategy is to only play machines that have layouts which make it relatively easy to get balls into the center gate. Thus, even though your success still depends greatly on the machine's settings, by being able to spin the digital slot machine a greater number of times with the same given amount of balls, you are giving yourself a greater chance to hit a jackpot and/or kakuhen. Evaluating the spacing and angles of the nails that formulate the pachinko machine's layout are crucial to this strategy.[4]

[edit] Winnings

The winnings are in the form of more balls, which the player may either use to keep playing or exchange for tokens (typically slits of gold encased in plastic), vouchers, or a vast array of prizes. Some prizes are as simple as pens or cigarette lighters; others can be electronics, bicycles, 50 cc scooters or other items. Under Japanese and Taiwanese law, cash cannot be paid out directly for pachinko balls, 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 their winnings for cash. This is tolerated by the police because, on paper at least, the pachinko parlors that pay out goods and tokens are independent from the exchange centers that trade the tokens in for cash. Some pachinko parlors may even give out vouchers for groceries at a nearby supermarket.

In Taiwan, it is possible to exchange balls or the items you won for cash at parlors, but they only do this with frequent customers and deduct a small percentage out of the final payout and it is highly illegal. Another way pachinko players can win cash legally is by "selling" the prizes they win to a nearby associate store that acts like a pawn shop and buys the items at discount prices. For example, if you exchanged your metal ball winnings for a pack of cigarettes but you do not smoke, you can sell it to the associate store (pawn shop) at 10%-30% less its actual value. Then there is also the possibility of trading your winnings with another pachinko player and either trade or sell the balls for cash.

[edit] Variations in Play

Due to the wide variety of pachinko machines and parlors, there are many different styles of play. Some pachinko parlors charge less for each ball (like 3 yen, 2 yen, or 1 yen), but, to compensate, they often tweak their machines to make it harder to hit a jackpot or to pay out less when one is reached. Also, some places may not offer a straight equal exchange from balls back into tokens or cash, instead taking out a slight percentage as part of a "bribe tax" to the police for looking the other way.

With regards to pachinko machines, many variations exist as well, particularly among the old-school machines. The most obvious is the range of jackpot odds among different brands. For the old-school machines, the odds can be from anywhere between 1 in 275 and 1 in 420. For the ama-deji/yu-pachi machines the odds of a jackpot range from 1 in 85 to 1 in 100.

As noted above, for the old-school pachinko machines, the chance of hitting a kakuhen on any given jackpot can be from 50% to 80%. It is often the case for machines with good odds of getting a kakuhen, typically above 60%, that the number of rounds the player gets in payout mode vary between 6 and 15, depending on which one the machine wants to give you on any particular jackpot. It has also become popular to design some brands of old-school machines so that they can go into kakuhen mode without any prior indication or jackpot on the digital slot machine. Instead, what happens is that the machine will give you a minimum of 2 straight jackpots after informing you of the kakuhen.

[edit] Machine Manipulation by Parlors

Pachinko parlors are notorious for tweaking the payout odds of their machines to get the most money from customers as possible without scaring them away. This means that all pachinko machines usually have different payout settings than what is announced by their manufacturers. The Japanese police tolerate such manipulation so long as parlors only change the machine settings outside of business hours and not during the time a customer is actually using it. It is commonly believed that pachinko machines can have one of six general settings on any given day: Level 1 (30% loss), Level 2 (15% loss), Level 3 (5% loss), Level 4 (5% gain), Level 5 (15% gain), and Level 6 (30% gain), with the "bad machines" being found in much greater number. However, many machines have been observed to have payout odds well beyond this range.

While not common knowledge to the public, most Japanese pachinko parlors link all of their machines to one central processing unit that monitors their daily activities. Additionally, each pachinko machine has the capability of allowing itself to be remote controlled. In general, this is to allow the hall staff, who each carry a remote control device, to freeze the digital slot machines if any malfunctions occur when they are being played. However, this function also allows the hall staff to covertly alter the payout settings of pachinko machines if there is a particular player they want to win or lose a greater amount of money for whatever reason.

What day of the week and what time of the year it is also determines how pachinko parlor will set their machines. Holidays like New Year and Tanabata are usually when most pachinko players can expect a high rate of return on their gambling investment. This is because these periods are when a huge amount of people play pachinko for leisure and the parlors are keen to attract them to come back for more in the near future when the odds are not as favorable. On the other hand, weekends are often tough for most players to profit because this is the only time when the majority of people can play pachinko.

Strategic layout is also practiced by many pachinko parlors as part of this psychological strategy of attracting players. The most common method is to set machines that are easy to view by the public outside of the parlor at an extremely high payout rate. Hence, when people walk by the parlor and see a player at this machine with a huge stack of full ball buckets, he or she will be more inclined to give the other machines in the parlor a try even though they are at lower settings. Many pachinko parlors have also been known to hire players referred to as sakura to sit at machines with extremely high payout settings and accumulate large stacks of ball buckets for this exact purpose. Of course, the sakura are later required to return these balls to the parlor management free of charge.

[edit] Popular Pachinko Machines

By far, the most popular brand of pachinko machines is the Great Sea Story Series, which is produced by Sanyo Bussan. It is renowned for its relatively easy play, simple yet engaging animations, and sexy main character Marin. Also of late, the Evangelion Series has become extremely popular. Other familiar pachinko series include Lupin the 3rd and Endless Love.

[edit] Smoking

Since Japan ratified the World Health Organization 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.[5] In Taiwan the pachinko parlors feature prominent and uninhibited smoking and drinking.

[edit] 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 and redeem for toys, candy, and other prizes. This children's version is considered more like a carnival game and nowadays sophisticated electrical versions are used in arcades.

[edit] Legality and crime

In Japan, gambling within the private industry is illegal, but pachinko parlors are tacitly tolerated by the Japanese authorities as "semi-gambling" and are not categorically considered as centers of illegal activity. Any potential illegal activity is evaluated on a case by case basis. Even then, only the most obvious offenders will be shut down, such as parlors that manipulate the payout odds of their machines when they are already in use. Attitudes towards pachinko vary in Japan from being considered a way to make a living to being stigmatized. In tourist 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.[6] "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.[7] 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. Roughly 50% of parlour owners are South Korean, 30% to 40% North Korean, and the remaining 5% - 10% Japanese and other nationals.[8]

Taiwan is another country currently undergoing a pachinko craze as it is a form of gambling that bypasses the law. Crime organizations run many Taiwanese pachinko parlors as it provides a front for loan sharking, money laundering, escort services, and is also a source of investment income.

[edit] Relationship with the Police

In Japan, due to its bordering on illegal gambling, the pachinko industry has a close relationship with the police force. In previous decades, when pachinko was still widely accepted as a relatively harmless leisure, this was not the case. Currently, however, due to growing public and political pressure, Japanese police are more active in regulating parlors and they often send retired officers to become board members of pachinko companies.

As has been referred to above, at present, most pachinko parlors are required to pay an unofficial "gambling tax", which is gathered from players' winnings, as a form of bribe to the police for tolerating their what would otherwise be illegal activities. It is normally the case that the police will only shut pachinko parlors if they blatantly alter the payout odds of their machines when they are in use, or if they have been significantly altered in any way to cause gamblers to lose an intolerable amount of money, such as with the use of third-party electronic devices. Hence, unexpected raids on suspicious pachinko parlors to search for such alterations are not uncommon in Japan today.

One interesting incident that illustrates the Japanese police's high level of tolerance for the gambling that takes place in pachinko parlors occurred in 2005. In May of that year, a particular parlor in Kanagawa prefecture reported to the local police that someone had counterfeited their tokens and made off with roughly $60,000 in cash by trading them in at at their nearby exchange center. However, even with such information proving that this parlor was illegally operating an exchange center, which, by law, must be an independent entity from the pachinko industry, the police did not shut them both down, but, instead, only worked to track down the thief in question.[9]

[edit] 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 addiction to the game.

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

In the Japanese television drama Summer Snow, Hiroto and some of his friends are regular visitors of a Pachinko parlor.

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.

Also, in the Anime and Manga YuYu Hakusho, Yusuke Urameshi, the protagonist, has a thing for pachinko and spends a lot of his free time at the local pachinko parlor (and, as it was written in 1990-1994, he also has a thing for secondhand smoke, but does not only do it in the parlor). At one point in the story (Tunnel to the Demon Plane: Chapter 12: Fierce Rain), he misses out on a battle with one of the Seven Demons (who Kuwabara had to fight by himself) because he was in the middle of a pachinko game.

The kaiju (aka monster of the week) in one episode of "Gosei Sentai Dairanger" (1993) was pachinko-related. This monster carried over to an episode of the second (1993-1995) season of "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" (which used Dairanger effects footage); oddly enough, he retained his pachinko connections, even though most kids in the West had no idea what pachinko was.

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 through a pachinko parlor in downtown Tokyo, showing the massive affluence of people in the place.

There is an upcoming magical girl anime called Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angels that used to be a pachinko game.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Manufacturers

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ 手塚 理恵 Rie Teszuka (1996-04). パチンコ 釘で勝つ本. 双葉社. 
  2. ^ 手塚 理恵 Rie Teszuka (1996-04). パチンコ 釘で勝つ本. 双葉社. 
  3. ^ 手塚 理恵 Rie Teszuka (1996-04). パチンコ 釘で勝つ本. 双葉社. 
  4. ^ 手塚 理恵 Rie Teszuka (1996-04). パチンコ 釘で勝つ本. 双葉社. 
  5. ^ (English) Shores, Trey (2006-05-26). A dying breed: Japan’s smokers are feeling the heat as the government slowly tackles tobacco. Metropolis. Retrieved on 2006-09-12.
  6. ^ (English) Glain, Steve (1996-07-24). Lost gamble: How Japan's attempt to slow nuclear work in North Korea failed. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved on 2006-09-12.
  7. ^ Freire, Carl, The Associated Press, reported in The Japan Times, December 6, 2006, p. 3.
  8. ^ An Osaka-Asahi news program "Move" reported these numbers in early February of 2007.
  9. ^ Fraud Investigation: Pachinko parlor in Kawasaki loses 560 million yen due to counterfeit tokens. Shikoku News (2005-05-16). Retrieved on 2007-03-30.

[edit] External links

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