�����ƽ��

In 2023, the pachinko and pachislot market size in Japan amounted to **** trillion Japanese yen. This was the first time an increase was registered during the past decade. While the size of the industry continuously decreased during the past decade, pachinko still comprises a substantial share of Japan’s leisure industry. Pachinko has a player population in the millions, thousands of parlors, and millions of machines operating throughout the country. 

How does pachinko work?

Pachinko is an arcade-style gambling game in which small metallic balls fall through a field of obstacles. The objective is to direct balls into winning cups, which then triggers the machine to gush out more balls. These can be later turned into cash or prizes at nearby shops. The gameplay goes as follows: the player feeds the machine cash to rent out balls. Players have a limited amount of control over the flow of the game by utilizing levers to inject balls into the circuit or to manipulate traps inside the machine. One small silver ball can be bought for somewhere between one and ** Japanese yen, depending on the machine. Most pachinko gamblers spend over 10,000 Japanese yen per parlor visit, making the pachinko business lucrative, as the amount won per pachinko machine per day shows.

Is playing pachinko legal in Japan?

The short answer is not quite. According to chapter 23 article *** of Japan’s criminal code, gambling is prohibited by law, as the first part of the unofficial English translation states: “A person who gambles shall be punished by a fine of not more than ** yen or a petty fine; *”. Despite this, Japan’s gambling industry seems to be thriving. Millions of people indulge in different variants of lotto, sports betting (mainly horse racing, motorboat racing, and bicycle racing), and pachinko or pachislot gaming, to name the most prominent contributors to the industry’s market size. In terms of the amusement industry market share, pachinko has a dominant position, followed by horse racing (keiba). The market share and market size numbers offer the means to solve this paradox that is occurring in Japan’s amusement industry. With the pachinko market as sizable as it is, it is evident that the stakes are high and the stakeholders numerous. Pachinko parlor operators contribute substantially to taxes. Consequently, legal exceptions to the above-mentioned prohibition were created in the past, and various loopholes were devised to make the impossible possible so that gambling can go on. Hence, the continuation of the aforementioned paragraph reads: “*; provided, however, that the same shall not apply to a person who bets a thing which is provided for momentary entertainment”. Through the agency of local police, the Japanese government has a tight grip on the industry. The government, in cooperation with public safety commissions, controls the industry’s business environment, and also engages in the nitty-gritty of the pachinko business, devising and enforcing machine standards, among other things.