Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | April 2011 14 arcade games is that with pachinko , players ‘buy’ real steel balls with their money, rather than buy electronic credits. The balls also have to be launched manually by the player rather than automatically in order for pachinko to qualify as a ‘leisure’ activity rather than as ‘gambling’. Gravity, rather than random number generation and bet size, is the key ingredient of the game. A pachinko machine resembles a vertical pinball machine, but with no flippers and a large number of relatively small balls. The player fires a ball up into the machine, controlling only its initial speed. The ball then cascades down through a dense forest of pins. In many cases, the ball falls to the bottom and is lost, but if it instead goes into certain pockets, more balls are released as a jackpot. The psychology of the game is interesting, in that unlike casino slots, by the end of a pachinko session the average player will have ‘won’ more games than he has lost, in the sense he ends up with more balls than when he started. That doesn’t automatically mean, however, that the player has an advantage over the house. That’s because while players may ‘buy’ their balls at say four yen apiece, the ‘buy back’ value of the balls when players come to exchange their catch for prizes, is always lower—typically 33% lower. At the end of a session, players exchange their haul of balls for so-called‘normal’prizes such as cigarettes, confectionery, electronics and other items, or they can be exchanged for ‘special’ prizes. That exchange stage is the real key to the player appeal of pachinko . Examples of ‘special’ prizes include strange and cheap looking plastic boxes or even tacky cigarette lighters. The real value of special prizes is that they can be taken off the premises and swapped for cash. This is done at a specialist exchange shop (known as ‘ kankin ’)—usually around the corner from the pachinko hall. The kankin then sells the special prizes back to distributors, who then re-sell the prizes back to the pachinko halls and so the cycle continues. P achinko is a machine-delivered game using steel balls in an upright cabinet reminiscent of vintage Western penny arcade games. According to Osaka-based author Brian Ashcraft, the word pachinko has existed since the Meiji Era (1868-1912) and refers to something shot out of a catapult. Mr Ashcraft says that pachin is the onomatopoeic word in Japanese for ‘slap’ or ‘click’, and ko means ‘ball’. The first pachinko parlour, installed with wooden pachinko machines, opened in the Japanese city of Nagoya in 1930. After the SecondWorldWar, the game’s popularity boomed as pachinko players had a chance to win tobacco—a sought after luxury in post-conflict Japan. Modern pachinko machines share some of the characteristics of contemporary slot gaming technology such as bill acceptors and ticket-in/ticket-out technology. Like ‘shoot ‘em up’ arcade games and like slot machines, pachinko machines are grouped together and marketed in shops and halls often referred to as ‘parlours’. A key difference from most casino and the introduction of casino gaming, given its potential for contribution to GDP growth. But so many announcements about timetables for legislation and the ‘imminent’ arrival of casinos have been made by those advising the country’s lawmakers, that the investment community has understandably become rather sceptical about progress on the issue. Professor Ichiro Tanioka of the Institute of Amusement Industry Studies at Osaka University of Commerce has been a long- time observer of this process. “The incident [earthquake and aftermath] will delay the [casino liberalisation] schedule,” says Prof. Tanioka. “Another aspect has occurred since the earthquake. This is whether we should enhance casino legalisation for the sake of the damaged area. This argument is not openly discussed at the moment though.” The fact Japan is in a highly active earthquake zone does not disbar future large scale infrastructure investment of the kind associated with modern casino resorts. Thanks to Japan’s robust building inspection and construction regime, most major structures survived even the recent 9.0 magnitude quake. The tsunami that accompanied the earthquake does, though, create a strong argument for building any such casino resorts well inland. As far back as the mid-2000s, the Japanese media were reporting that 22 of the country’s 47 prefectures were in favour of regulated casino gaming. Tokyo’s Governor Shintaro Ishihara has been a major proponent of the idea. The real elephant-sized sumo wrestler in the room regarding the prospects for casinos in Japan is not natural disasters. It’s not even the political instability that has seen four changes of prime minister since Junichiro Koizumi stepped down from the role in September 2006. The problem is pachinko , the Japanese pinball-like game to be found everywhere in the country. Cover Story Pachinko Mon Amour A bizarre game with a bizarre prize system Hot stuff—don’t go to pachinko halls for peace and quiet Balls win prizes Die another day—a James Bond-themed pachinko machine