Pachinko is a vertical pinball game. ("Pachin" is the onomatopoeic for the sound made by the descending pinball.) . It is played in arcades known as Pachinko Parlors. The metallic din of thousands of pinballs in raining through hundreds of machines is loud enough to mask the even the traffic outside the Pachinko Parlor. If that is not enough, the sound systems blare music to "set the mood". A Pachinko ball is made of steel and is 11 millimeters (approx 7/16") in diameter (smaller than a standard US pinball). The balls are usually marked with symbols indicating the Parlor or Chain of Parlors they are from. Pachinko is played for entertainment and prizes. However, since the prizes can be traded for cash (in a round about manner), it is also Japan's number one form of gambling.

PACHINKO HOW-TO

• You "rent" balls from the Parlor at a cost of 400 yen per 100 balls. (USD$3.80/100 around 4 cents each)  You can get as little as 100 yen's worth, but no serious player would start with less than a few thousand yen or 500 balls.

• Carefully select your machine, look for "lucky" machines, by analyzing the nail pattern (see below) or machines that are "due to pay".

• Load your rented balls into the selected machine's playing tray.

• Flick the handle on the bottom right of the machine. Newer machines have auto-shooters, so you turn and hold to set the launch speed. This launches a ball into the playing field. You only control the speed at which they are shot into playing field, it then becomes, basically, a game of chance.

• The ball falls through a network/maze of nail-like pins, wheels and obstacles, haphazardly bouncing around and through.

• The goal is to have the balls directed into the win pockets or holes.

• When a ball enters these pockets or holes, lights flash, bells ring and more Pachinko Balls pay-out into the playing tray. (Newer machines combine spinning reels, video, and cumulative payouts, sometimes into the thousands of balls)

• The object is to accumulate as many pachinko balls as you can. If you are successful, you will have pachinko balls remaining when you are ready to leave.

• You exchange these balls at the Parlors Boutique for prizes. (And the prizes, in a round-a-bout way, for cash; 250 yen for 100 balls. (USD$2.40/100)

THE PACHINKO PARADOX
The average player wins more balls than he loses, so it seems the player has the advantage. However, since the redemption value of the balls is only 2.5 yen apiece (versus 4.0 to rent) the Parlor actually has the advantage. The player "wins" because they finish with more balls than they started with and the Parlor "wins" because they finish with more money than they started with.

THE BOUTIQUE
A corner of every pachinko parlor is a Boutique where the pachinko balls can be redeemed for prizes. Back in the early days of pachinko, shortly after World War II, the game was a major source of black market products like soap and chocolates. Glass shelves still carry Chanel perfumes, Fendi bags, Hello Kitty Alarm Clocks and CDs along with “special prizes” such as fairly worthless plastic boxes, cigarette lighter flints, or pencils, labeled “300 balls” or “90 balls.” Since most players want money they trade their Pachinko Balls for these junk "Special Prizes" that can be redeemed at the "kankinjo"

THE KANKINJO
Down a dark alley near the Parlor will be a "kankinjo", the place where the "special prizes" are traded for cash. These are a separate business from the Pachinko Parlor. It is this fiction that allows Japan to pretend pachinko is not gambling. An attendant sits behind one-way glass with a slide-out security drawer. The attendant opens the drawer, you put in your prizes, they yank the drawer inside, and shove it back with cash.

RIGGING THE GAME?
After the Parlor closes for the night the nails in the playing fields of the pachinko machines are "tuned". The nails control both the direction and speed at which the balls fall. Selected nails, crucial to directing the balls into payoff gates, are slightly bent one way or the other. The process, while technically illegal, is critical to the success of a Parlor. A good "kugishi" - or "nail specialist" - with a hammer and gauge can make or break a Parlor. The last thing a Parlor wants to do is truly gamble with the customers.

Yes; it's rigged. But that doesn't bother the people you would expect to complain the most - the players. Regular players are aware that the machines are "fine-tuned". Players tacitly accept the practice since the nails are often bent in their favor. Many players have elaborate schemes for analyzing the machines and determining which are "lucky".

According to parlor manager Yoshimasa Ono "If my customers never win, they'll have no reason to come back. If they win too much, I get crunched. It's about finding the proper balance," Ono says with a chuckle. "The hardest part is making the nails look lucky when really they're not.

HOW BIG IS IT?
The reported annual income of the pachinko industry exceeds US$100 billion, with estimated actual revenues are 28.7 trillion yen (US$300 billion). This makes Pachinko one of Japan's largest industries, larger than the automakers (17.6 trillion yen) , and dwarfing the country's 4.96 trillion yen defense budget by a factor of six. Because pachinko is ideal for skimming, organized crime is very active in the pachinko industry. It is without question Japan's largest tax evader.