Last year the high-tech pachinko wars made headlines all across Japan. Pitted against each other in this struggle are the parlor owner and the serious recreational or professional player. Both are trying to manipulate the programming of the machines that determines the percentage of wins, a percentage which is set by law. Pachinko pros scour Akihabara and other electronics meccas in search of electronic play enhancers–altered walkie-talkies, short wave gadgets and the like, which are supposed to trick pachinko machines. These devices cost between one and seven thousand dollars. High-tech pachinko hustlers hope to walk in with electronic gadgets shoved up their sleeves, confuse machines into spewing out a cascade of shiny balls and then slip out without ever being detected.

Faced with intense competition all over the country, parlor owners have been accused of tampering with win ratios so that on slow afternoons there will be fewer wins and on busy days there will be proportionally more. The idea is that payoffs are more conspicuous on busy days, providing a kind of in-house advertising that will entice customers to come back to spend their time and money.

Changing Times

Like many long-established sports and recreational pursuits, pachinko is experiencing an erosion in its base of support as Japanese lifestyles and leisure habits change. The entertainment satta king industry has grown and developed, and people have many more ways to spend their free time than in the past. Pachinko must now contend with a variety of competitors, including karaoke, home videos, compact discs, wide-screen TVs and computer video games, just to name a few. The industry is doing all it can to stir up interest and bring in new customers, but many parlors are uneasy about the future, and some are in a state of near-panic.

One strategy has been to court a new segment of the adult population–women (it is illegal for children under age 18 to play). Pachinko has traditionally been a male form of recreation, and it suffers from a rather grubby image. The stereotypical pachinko player is a man staring vacantly at the machine, cigarette dangling from his mouth, mindlessly shooting balls for hours on end. Of course there have always been some female pachinko players. In fact, Doi Takako, the former head of the Social Democratic Party and current Speaker of the Diet, is a self-professed fan. Nevertheless, the seedy image of pachinko has kept many women away in the past.

Some parlors have responded by improving their furnishings and facilities, many of which are nothing short of luxurious. A number of parlors now offer free coffee, video screens and miniature TVs attached to pachinko machines. A few have even abandoned the once-obligatory marching music in favor of other forms of background music.

Parlors are starting to establish special women’s sections and offer such upscale prizes as Gucci bags, hoping to give the game a loftier image. Some parlors even provide refrigerators so housewives can stow their groceries when they stop on the way home from shopping. Many now hold “Ladies’ Days” which seem to be quite popular, even though the only incentive is that the women have the parlor to themselves–men are excluded on those days.