What is pachinko? Think of it as a vertical pinball/slot machine hybrid. You shoot the ball and try to get it into specific holes to activate the slot (think of it as skee ball, in that regard). Depending on the result, the machine dispenses a number of balls.
Like skee ball, you can turn in the balls for various prizes or you can trade them for special tokens. You can then take those tokens to a nearby shop (usually owned by the same pachinko parlor) and sell the tokens for cash. As long as you don't receive the cash in the parlor, itself, it is not considered illegal; so many places use this "loop hole" as a way to get around the gambling laws.
Pachinko parlors are immensely popular in Japan. Pachinko machines bring in an average of 4 billion dollars per month and there are approximately 600,000 of them all over Japan!
The coolest thing about pachinko machines is that, like when pinball machines were popular in America, they are plastered with popular stars and characters.
There are even KISS pachinko machines. Oh, Gene, is there anything you won't stamp the KISS name on?
Now it makes sense why in the first Pokemon games you had to exit the Game Corner and go next door to exchange your tokens for prizes!
ReplyDeleteLOL, I never thought of that, it''s exactly like that.
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