Cash For Balls

[Mulboyne]

[floatl][/floatl]November 2007 saw the start of a controversial plan to install ATM machines in pachinko parlours. At first, they were introduced to only 10 sites but, now the initial trial has been declared a success, the intention is to expand to 100 sites around Tokyo, Saitama, Chiba and Kanagawa with an additional 50 machines in the Kansai districts of Osaka, Kyoto, Nara and Hyogo. The machines allow the parlour operators to deposit takings directly but they obviously also allow customers to withdraw money. Concerns were raised that such easy access to money might prove disastrous for some people who, absorbed in play, might keep taking out money and rack up larger than normal losses. To counter this, there is a 30,000 yen limit on withdrawals and all the ATMs are bank machines rather than sarakin ATMs which provide unsecured consumer loans. Consumer groups remain concerned about the development.

[Netherlander]

[Ketou]

[Netherlander]

[Mulboyne]

A report in Diamond(Japanese) points out that because pachinko halls need police permission before they can install ATMs, this has helped cement the relationship between the two. In particular, it has reinforced the practice of amakudari where retired police officers join pachinko businesses to maintain a smooth relationship between the two sides.

The article says that some large operators have decided not to install ATMs after complaints arose when news broke that the industry was considering the idea. Nevertheless, around 130 halls across the country now have them, primarily on behalf of regional banks rather than the majors but these are all linked into the nationwide system.

[Catoneinutica]

The Psycho State of North Korea certainly couldn't have survived all these years without pachinko remittances from Chosen Soren-types greasing the wheels. To the extent that these remittances fund nukes and missiles, you'd think the uyoku would have a problem with pachinko parlors. But that of course isn't the case because, well, in a Venn Diagram, the "yakuza" circle would intersect liberally with both the "uyoku" and "zainichi kitachosenjin" circles.