I was watching the travel channel tonight and a show called "Tokyo Revealed" was on. I figured they would mention Pachinko so I watched it for a while. Anyway, about 40 minutes into the show, they did a segment about Pachinko. It showed a bunch of the modern Pachinkos. I have never been there so it was pretty cool to see what those places are like in video rather than in the still pics I have seen around. They showed a guy cash in close to 2000 balls and then take the tokens he got from the Pachinko parlor around back to a place that in what looked like an ATM machine. Well, there was a human on the other side of it rather than a machine, who took the tokens and gave the man his cash.
So, if you have the travel channel be sure to check it out. I am sure they repeat the shows.
Paul