Pachinko Parlors in The U.S.

[p.opus]

The reason that Pachinko doesn't "take off" in the US is the difference in philosphies between the Japanese and people here in the US.

In Japan, although it is technically gambling, it's penny-ante gambling. It is extremely hard to lose big in Pachinko and thus win big in Pachinko.

Those who incur large gambling debts in Japan due to Pachinko usually have built them up over years and years of playing.

Case in point, I recently ran 1000 balls through my vintage machine using a Gako Counter, which I think is fairly loose, and had a GREAT run. I totalled a net gain of 290 balls. A 29% on my money. And that was the highest I recently recorded. Most of the time after 1000 balls I am within a margin of +/- 15 percent.

These types of margins just don't appeal to U.S. Gamblers. They want the huge payout. The most successful slots are those tied into the huge Progressive jackpots.

In fact slot machines were in danger of becoming extinct in Vegas because single machines were just not capable of paying out the margins required to keep gambler's interest.

When the concept of the progressive jackpots hit, it signalled a surge in slot play.

Even our "entertainment only" machines we see using tickets, offer huge payouts. The idea is to get the huge prize with as little gameplay as possible.

Pachinko players typically don't have that mind set. They are there not to win, but to unwind. It's almost unfathomable to our culture that the loudest, brightest, place in Japan is a place where someone goes to find solace. But if you walk into a Parlor in Japan, that is exactly what you see. Pachinko is an extremely solitary endeavor. It is you, the machine, and the balls.

Those of us here who love the game, tap into that almost hypnotic quality of simply launching the balls and watching them carom down the pin field. This is the primary motivation and draw to the Japanese. And one that most people here in the US don't understand.

Yes, the new modern machines do have fever modes that have much larger payouts, but again, these fever mode payouts are small compared to a corresponding US Slot machine.

There of those who love this game, but I think there are more people in the US like my kids, who "just don't get it".

just my .02

[candyflip]

The reason that Pachinko doesn't "take off" in the US is the difference in philosphies between the Japanese and people here in the US.

In Japan, although it is technically gambling, it's penny-ante gambling. It is extremely hard to lose big in Pachinko and thus win big in Pachinko.

Yeah sorry - don't agree at all.

Having lived and worked in Tokyo, and played actual parlor pachinko for many years, you can lose small fortunes. I'm afraid flicking your vintages at home is *nothing like* reality.

In parlors you can easily drop 10,000Yen in a matter of half an hour on a hungry modern. Some machines might take hours to payout, some won't at all. Total losses are usual - not an aberration. Lucky players can walk away with upwards of 100,000Yen, losers can do the same damage to themselves.

It's like almost any form of gambling - if you want to go large at it, you can.

However, your point on progressive jackpots etc are well made. Their is a scale difference with Vegas slots versus pachinko/pachislo - but I'm not sure it's the reason that pachinko wouldn't be a hit in America.

The actual limiting factor is of course the owners of casinos - who want greater throughput of $$.
Slots offer that - pachinko/slo's do not.

[p.opus]

Yeah sorry - don't agree at all.

Having lived and worked in Tokyo, and played actual parlor pachinko for many years, you can lose small fortunes. I'm afraid flicking your vintages at home is *nothing like* reality.

In parlors you can easily drop 10,000Yen in a matter of half an hour on a hungry modern. Some machines might take hours to payout, some won't at all. Total losses are usual - not an aberration. Lucky players can walk away with upwards of 100,000Yen, losers can do the same damage to themselves.

It's like almost any form of gambling - if you want to go large at it, you can.

While I agree that "flipping my vintages" at home is nothing like playing in a parlor, the machines still have physical limits to how much you can loose. In 1969 when the restrictions to the auto-loaders were lifted, the shooters were limited to 100 balls a minute.

This restriction has not been lifted as far as I know. Even moderns are still limited to 100 balls a minute. However auto-shooters mean I can just hold the shooter in place instead of actually flipping the ball with my thumb.

Your statement of losing 10,000 yen a half hour sounds about right. Ball rental is supposed to be around 4.5 yen per ball, so that would make 100 balls equal to $4.50. If a customer shot 6000 balls an hour without winning one jackpot he would lose $270.00 an hour. Significant, but nowhere near what you can lose in vegas.

By contrast, I played dollar slots last time I was in Vegas and dropped 100.00 in less than 10 minutes.

So yes, while flipping my vintage at home is no match for playing in a parlor, I can lose and shoot nearly just as many balls as anyone in a parlor. (Of course my thumb will fall off keeping a 100 ball per minute rate for a straight hour.)

[candyflip]

Pachinko and pachislo can be run anyway a foreign authority decides they might. The machines don't care.

If, for example, each token or ball was worth $1 in Vegas, you'd have a machine that could take $6000 an hour. Not bad.

But would a casino take a chance on an entirely new game, that might threaten it's existing ones, with no (gambling) history in America?

I hope so.