For those of you thinking about automatic ball returns, consider this:


Balls rain on pachinko gambler's head
2004.08.26

MAEBASHI -- Part of a pachinko parlor ceiling here collapsed under the weight of pachinko balls, causing thousands of metal balls to fall into the parlor and injure a customer, police said Thursday.
At around 2:50 p.m., a 1-square-meter part of the ceiling of the Jalan 6342 pachinko parlor in the Hiyoshicho district of Maebashi fell through, sending about 88,000 pachinko balls weighing a total of 400 kilograms into the parlor, according to investigators.

Of about 250 customers, a 63-year-old woman suffered slight head injuries after being hit by some of the balls. Nobody else was wounded in the incident.

A massive number of pachinko balls leaked from a junction in one of the pipes circulating balls above the ceiling, and piled up on the ceiling. Because of their weight, the 1-square-meter part of the ceiling fell through, according to investigators.

An investigator quoted one of the customers as saying, "pachinko balls fell like rain." (Mainichi Shimbun, Japan, Aug. 26, 2004)