For many years, Las Vegas and Macau has been highly popular for its Casinos. But someone from East Asia, or someone who has visited, or knows about the regional culture here well, shall add Pachinko to this list too.
A 30 minute drive from Sendai Station towards Nagamachi, you can see a huge building with large characters and fancy lights of neon shades named ‘Vegaropolis’. It houses a highly popular Onsen, Bowling arena, a Taito station, Food Court and a huge Pachinko parlor.
“300,000 people visit this Pachinko every month,” said the head of the Vegas Vegas branch who, now a 39 year old man, started playing Pachinko when he was about 20. “I have made my hobby into my career and I myself play Pachinko around 2-3 times a week and my biggest win was ￥200,000” he added.
Pachinko is all about skill, luck and smartness. You fill up a Pachinko card and use it for playing the game. There are several different versions of it. From Transformers and Samurais from the Edo periods to ‘Juicy Honey’ and Japanese Anime, everything that suits the people’s taste flashes on the screen. Small metal balls are launched into a small hole and the more number of balls into the hole, the higher amount you win. There is a ‘Jackpot’ version too where you need to get three same numbers/pictures to get one boxful of balls. Each ball can vary from ￥1 to ￥4 yen. 1000 balls amount to ￥890 and one small box amounts to ￥4,000. If you are successful in filling up one big box, the amount can vary from anything between ￥8,000 and ￥12,000.
Pachinko is only for people who are older than or equal to 18 years of age. Though the legal adult age in Japan is 20, you can play Pachinko at 18 itself. This law is just to restrict high-schoolers from playing the game. The afternoons are mostly occupied by elderly people and housewives, and the evenings are filled with men who return from work. Old people, who apparently have a lot of time end up playing Pachinko.
Pachinko is a noisy game. With metal balls clashing against each other and loud music, this game is not for silence-lovers. This Pachinko company was established in Yamagata and celebrated it 50 years anniversary in 2015. The Nagamachi branch is the largest and it began its operations in 2005.
Each Pachinko machine costs about a whopping ￥450,000! This branch houses 1,600 such machines.
“With a lot of other entertainment options, the Pachinko business is falling,” says a member from the Board. When asked about the international scope for Pachinko he says, “It is a very Japanese idea and hence exporting it is difficult as of now. Though there are some Pachinko stations outside Japan too.”
The company clearly states that the Pachinko idea is not an American one and WWII had no influence on it. On comparison between the old and the new machines they say, “New machines have automatic handles which the old machines lack.”
“From the last few years, people who don’t play Pachinko at all too have started working here,” the branch head comments.
Pachinko is different from Casinos as there is no direct involvement of cash. Though the balls account for monetary value but cash cannot be obtained in exchange, just gifts. Gambling is illegal in Japan but Pachinko is not. There are rules for running a Pachinko place.
It is a novel experience to understand the Pachinko perspective. It is a rare opportunity that we get to listen to their story and how a game popular since the days of the war has continued to keep a large number of Japanese glued to it. It is not always that we get to learn such varied things but a diverse approach like this helps in expanding not only our knowledge but also influences our opinions.
