Job Discussion Forums

[sushi]

Have been into a few pachinko halls just to look and observe, and was quite amazed at the size and number of places that there are in any city.

Seems there are slot machines and pin ball machines. Pin ball machines use steel ball thinkies. Machines I have noticed accept Yen1000 notes.

My question: how much does one usually get for a full tray of steel ball thinkies when he turns it in. Have seen people turn in up to 8 trays to a guy at a machine who has the balls counted. A slip is given to the player with the number of balls won I guess and he turns iｔ in to a cashier. cashier doesｎ't give money. Players it seems get some sort of voucher or vouchers. Anyone know what those vouchers represent, and can a foreigener go into those places and leave with earned
money. Is an ID asked for.

[abufletcher]

I've never been able to hold my breath long enough to find out how Pachinko palaces work.

[king kakipi]

[cornishmuppet]

As far as I know, each ball is worth 5yen, and a box roughly works out to about 5000. One hell of a waste of money though. My ex girlfriend used to put away 10000 once a week or so, for the occasional big pay out. I've been twice, the only thing I did each time was hold a handle so the little balls could feed inside. I've spent a grand total of 4500 yen over about 20min of playing time! I love a good gamble, but there wasn't enough to do to make it fun! I'd hoped it would be like the fruit machines back in England, where, although you almost inevitably lose, there are lots of flashing buttons to press on the way.

[Gordon]

I fail to see any enjoyment in pachinko. It must be cultural, the noise and smoke, how could you like it? I can take about 5 mins tops.

[6810]

you get your receipt, take it to the counter and can exchange for equivalent value in prizes (cigarettes, toys, appliances, food etc).

Or you can exchange it for special bubblegum/candy/incense/plastic rods which you then take to literally a hole in the wall and "sell" them to the hole where a mysterious hand will give you the cash they are worth.

I once won 20,000 yen off of 500. That was the second and last time I ever played it.

[Sweetsee]

Sure you can play, if you want to help line the pockets of retired cops, mobsters and help prop up the government of North Korea, yeah, you can play.
How many times have I read about the children who perish locked in infernal ovens while their parents played?

[6810]

[sushi]

What's the bit about North Korea? I had heard that the regime up there get's a lot of the proceeds from pachinko. How does that work? Are they the outfits set up by the many North Koreans already living in japan?

[ndorfn]

pachinko is presumably like american football, shogi, or heroin, hard to understand the enjoyment when you don't have a reasonable understanding or experience.

But then again, who wants it?

Admittedly I've only tried it briefly, and far prefer proper casinos with more varied games.