Patinko ( Jap. パ チ ン コ ) - a slot machine, which is an intermediate form between a cash game machine and a vertical pinball , is extremely popular in Japan .
Since casinos are not allowed in Japan, and the tote is allowed exclusively on horse racing , cycling and boat racing, the game of pachinko is very popular: 15 million Japanese regularly attend about 16 thousand pachinko halls, and there are about 34 thousand professional players, profits some of them reaches 3 thousand dollars a month. According to the statements of some professional players, their monthly gain reaches 100 thousand dollars, but this seems unlikely [to whom? ] .
How pachinko functions
A player buys a certain amount (usually hundreds or even thousands) of small metal balls, he sleeps them from above into the device, after which he can adjust the speed of shooting balls on the playing field with a lever designed for this. A stream of balls pouring down through a maze of pins, channels and dampers. Most balls are wasted, but one of them always gets into a special hole, which leads to the fact that:
- given a certain number of new balls
- the maze is rebuilt for a short time so that the probability of winning increases,
- the mechanism installed in the center of the game and resembles a gaming machine that throws out a win that differs from time to time in the form of a new portion of balls.
The early patinko machines were purely electromechanical and had no addition in the form of a slot machine. The latter, moreover, at first had the form of a classic three-controller system, but nowadays it is becoming increasingly difficult due to the mass use of computers and gives out game events directly. The place of mechanical pointers was taken by liquid crystal displays, on which icons and various symbols tell partially true small stories, ending with success (win) or defeat.
Since there is a general ban on gambling in Japan, there are no cash prizes. A win consisting of metal balls can only be exchanged for clothing prizes, such as a cigarette lighter or a bubble of perfume. However, in the vicinity of so many gambling halls of pachinko there are shops, where certain prizes for clothing can be exchanged for cash, which creates a legal “gray zone”, often associated with yakuza . As an alternative, in some gambling halls, a kind of “bank” is created, where the won balls are entered into the player’s account and can be subsequently issued, formally, to continue the game.
Game halls patinko with dozens, sometimes hundreds of machines can be seen everywhere in Japan. The halls are always colorfully decorated, smoked and filled with an incessant noise due to the rumble of balls and various announcements voiced through the loudspeakers. Men and women play pachinko on an equal footing, there is even a manga journal that deals exclusively with the pachinko theme.
Damage caused
Like any gamble, pachinko can be addictive . There are cases when players lost their jobs and families because of their addiction to patinko. The game is very popular in Japan and its popularity is constantly growing.
Recently, more and more articles have appeared in the press about young children, left by their mother-suffering patinkomania, in cars in parking lots next to gaming halls and the dead. In just a few years, 18 children were killed only by heatstrokes. One child died under the wheels of the car, as he was parked unattended. In order to avoid such incidents, some parking lots are constantly patrolled by the police.
See also
- Ludomania
- Galton's board