Under Japanese law, you can’t exchange any Pachinko balls that you’ve won directly for cash in the parlor you’re playing in. You also can’t take the Pachinko balls to a different parlor to exchange them there. But, you can trade them in for special “prize tokens” directly at the parlor you’ve obtained them in. The first vital thing you should know is that we didn’t accept any money from our recommended pachinko casino sites in exchange for featuring them on our list. Instead of creating a list with casino websites willing to pay us money, we focused our efforts on creating a legitimate and honest list of the best places for you to play the game. The Basics of Pachinko. I already mentioned that pachinko looks like a pinball machine, but the.
Winnings take the form of additional balls, which players may either use to keep playing or exchange for prizes. When players wish to exchange their winnings, they must call a parlor staff member by using a call button located at the top of their station. The staff member will then carry the player’s balls to an automated counter to see how many balls they have. After recording the number of balls the player won and the number of the machine they used, the staff member will then give the player a voucher or card with the number of balls stored in it. The player then hands it in at the parlor’s exchange center to get their prizes. Among the array of prizes available, there will invariably be an item known as the “special prize” (typically a small silver or gold novelty item encased in plastic) that can be sold for cash at an outside establishment in the vicinity of the parlor. Special prizes are awarded to the player in amounts corresponding to the number of balls won. For example, one special prize worth ¥1500 outside the parlor might be offered to a customer per 400 balls won, assuming each ball originally cost 4 yen. The vast majority of players opt for the maximum number of special prizes offered for their ball total, selecting other prizes only when they have a remaining total too small to receive a special prize.
Besides the special prizes, prizes may be as simple as chocolate bars, pens or cigarette lighters, or as complicated as electronics, bicycles and other items. Under Japanese law, cash cannot be paid out directly for pachinko balls, but there is usually a small establishment located nearby, separate from the game parlor but sometimes in a separate unit as part of the same building, where players may “sell” special prizes for cash. This is tolerated by the police because the pachinko parlors that pay out goods and special prizes are nominally independent from the shops that buy back the special prizes.Some pachinko parlors may even give out vouchers for groceries at a nearby supermarket. The yakuza (organized crime) were formerly often involved in prize exchange, but a great deal of police effort beginning in the 1960s and ramping up in the 1990s has largely done away with their influence. In Tokyo, the special prize exchange is handled exclusively by the Tokyo Union Circulation company (known as TUC), which sells pachinko and slot parlors gold slivers in standardized plastic cases, which it buys back from winning customers at its conveniently located “TUC Shop” windows.
There is always a place on the same block as the pachinko parlour where you can take the prizes and exchange them for cash. This is done to circumvent the gambling laws, and the practice is both understood and fully ignored by all authorities everywhere.