Pachinko is one of the Japanese's favourite pastimes.  According to my source (I will refer to him as Go), Pachinko has been around since about 1950.  Pachinko is most popular with middle aged men but recent marketing movements are seeing an increase in females and younger aged customers.  Every town has at least one of these cheezily lit neon palaces and the parking lots are usually full during business hours (10am to 10 or 11 at night - Okinawa is famous for being open until midnight).

What exactly is Pachinko?  Well it is much like a slot machine in concept but the user apparently has more control over the operation of the machine.  After entering a Pachinko parlour, one first changes their money into tokens, buys some balls (small metal balls that look a lot like a heavy duty ball bearing) and parks them self at a machine.  A dial is used to send the balls into the machine, and rotating the dial controls the speed of the balls.  If the balls fall in the right spot at the right time, the machine spits out more and more balls.  If you have so many balls that your machine is overflowing, you put them in a bucket (each bucket holds about 75 bucks worth of balls) and stack the buckets beside you until you finish.  If you run out of balls, just insert more tokens.  

Once you decide you have had enough (or your wife has come down to the parlour to drag you home), you use your balls to buy one of the silly items that the Pachinko parlour has for sale at the back counter.  These items can only be bought there and they are usually in the form of laundry detergent etc.  You then take the item that you bought outside and around back to this different, shady looking, dimly lit building and exchange it for cash.  

Here are the questions I asked Go.

When did you start playing Pachinko?  

When I was about 20.

How often do you play?

I go 2 to 3 times a week for about 2 to 3 hours each time.  Some go more, some less.  (On any given morning there are people lined up to get into the parlours)

Could you explain the costs?  How much can you win?

I have been losing for 30 years (laugh).  Each time I go I pump about 10 to 30000 yen (130 to 360 bucks) into the machine but I don't win very often.  The most I have ever won is 110000 yen (about 1400 bucks).  Some people win more but most people are like me - they lose.

That seems like an expensive hobby.  Why do you play?  What satisfaction does it bring?

When I play Mah-jong or other games I play with people.  If I win I feel bad about taking their money.  Pachinko is just a machine so there are no emotions involved.  Pachinko is a great stress relief for me.  To understand the popularity of Pachinko in Japan, you have to understand a certain amount of Japanese culture.  In Japan, one has to be cautious of the various social rules when talking or dealing with people.  This can create a lot of stress.  Sitting in front of a machine and not having to worry about anything is a nice break from our daily lives.  Son nice of a break that some people get addicted.

Gambling in Japan is illegal.  Why is Pachinko overlooked?

Pachinko is legal.  Gambling for money is illegal.  Pachinko uses tokens and balls.  You exchange your balls to purchase prizes.  The place that buys your prizes off of you is owned and run under a different owners name (often the wife of the Pachinko owner) so technically it is all legal.  

I hear of people calling themselves Pachinko pros.  But I have also read that parlour operators manually adjust the machines performance.  Can people really become a pro?

The games are run by computer and even if adjustments are made they can be learned.  But there are very few "pros".  There is one group of about 8 to 10 people called the Ryosanpaku who are pro.  They have studied the machines inside out and know every move even if they are adjusted.  They run around the country and visit parlours but usually the parlour owner just gives these guys a bunch of money and asks them to leave the establishment.  Parlours have know to go out of business after the Ryosanpaku visit them.  But these guys keep their group small and stay relatively low profile.  They don't teach others their tricks. 

I find it interesting that the majority of Pachinko parlours are owned and operated by North Koreans resident in Japan.  As with any gambling establishment, major money is made and therefore major taxes are paid to the Japanese government so the government is happy about that.  But everyone is well aware that a fair chunk of the profit money from Pachinko makes its way back to North Korea, a country that causes many diplomatic headaches for Japan.  One can only imagine what they the money is used for over there but you can be sure that a certain amount of it makes its way into the hands of the North Korean dictators.  The way I look at it is through visiting Pachinko parlours, the Japanese knowingly provide North Korea with the finances to create Japan's diplomatic headaches.  Hmmmm...