Gov't eyes banning entry of gambling addicts to pachinko parlors

Obviously no real measures will realistically be put in place.

TToken gesture

I rather got the impression that everyone in a Pachinko parlour was an addict.

Under the restricted entrance plan, gambling addicts who wish to overcome the problem or their families would notify nearby gambling facilities to ask that access be restricted.

If the facility operator recognized the addiction as serious, it could ban entry, or ask the person to leave if found inside the facility. And if the addiction were less serious, an operator could restrict the number of visits to the facility.

So, it's left up to the operators of these 'money printing factories' to tell three-quarters of their cliental to bugger off! Yeah, that's gonna work, NOT! Is the best these brainiacs in the government could come up with? They need to introduce support centers and counselling for the millions of addicts nationwide and the pachinko operators should be made to pay for them.

When see a Pachinko it really upset me. I get very angry and full of hate, I could easy smash a owner and have no guilt at all. They are legal Drug pushers living of money that children are mostly missing out on. Some drug pusher have a habit to support. But these Pachinko owner are the lowest of scam. I have to self access myself each time it effects me and it hard work. It a awful feeling getting full of hate. It totally weird because I never been effected by gambling indirectly or directly. I didn't know anyone effected with the gambling addiction. But these place full me with hate.

Just think that discussing such nonsense is actually classified as "work" and paid for by tax money. The mind boggles.

I'd be happier if they were forced to consolidate the 1000s of parlors cluttered about every station and forced to move to man-made islands far from my sight. Garish, loud, smoke-filled, with lines of decrepit looking addicts apparently w/out employment waiting to enter in the morning. Urban blight plaguing the most prominent, traveled places in Japan. You want to feed your addiction, fine, you don't need the venues to be as prevalent as conbini. Ditto the red-light districts adjacent to stations and shrines.

In some states in the US if I get drunk, drive a car, and injure anyone, the bartender could get in trouble; if I'm underage in a bar, the bartender could get in trouble. In some cases, the bar could lose their license for a month or more. In fact, some bartenders will cut me off if I appear too drunk.

What are the penalties here? I'm guessing nothing. What will be the enforcement? I'm guessing one week a year the police will have a Let's Gamble Addiction Stop campaign and ignore it for the rest of the year. I mean, why do the 'lawmakers' even try?

The government and ruling parties plan to introduce a system enabling pachinko parlors and other gambling facilities to ban the entry of people with serious addiction, government sources say.

How about just banning the Pachinko Parlors?  Many of their operators have links to N Korea anyway.  Stop that gravy train.

De facto gambling has been permitted at slot-machine and pachinko parlors in Japan for decades. Betting on publicly run horse, bicycle and powerboat races is also allowed in the country.

Then its not defacto gambling.  Its just gambling plain and simple.

Good god! Don't they have anything better to do? Aren’t there any more pressing matters than this?

Yeah, sure gov. Irony and sarcasm really need to be translated one of these days

So apparantly Pachinko in Japan makes more money than Casinos do in any other country.

Its quite hilarious to me to hear people declare that gambling is illegal in Japan, and that Casino's worry them.

Pachinko is the most successful gambling racket around and this is a addicted nation.

Unless people there's a facial recognition system in place that scans everyone that comes into the parlor or scanning ID's at the entrance, how could this actually work? I doubt employees will be able to memorize all those faces. Not to mention, in Japan it's perfectly normal to see someone wearing a surgical mask and sunglasses.

Another excuse for more profiling

Henceforth Doctors will be appointed as pachinko operators?!

Unless people there's a facial recognition system in place that scans everyone that comes into the parlor or scanning ID's at the entrance, how could this actually work?

thats exactly the point. It's not supposed to work. It's just another smoke and mirrors, non-enforceable 'guideline' created by a dithering and apathetic government to make it look like they are actually doing something about the 15% of the population who are addicted to pachinko.

It seems that they are wasting their future at such a place. Most would be more or less depressed after game.

Pachinko was so successful in Japan and they tried to export them to America in the past but their attempts were never successful. I am a Japanese and Pachinko is a fun for me but a slot machine boring. Why Amereicans do not like Pachinko? Pachinko has something more than just a gambling.

enabling pachinko parlors and other gambling facilities to ban the entry of people with serious addiction

I don't believe this 1 second, like if the yakuza will ban themselves their most addicted source of income.

Pachinko has something more than just a gambling.

Please tell us what that is. Pachinko and slots and time and life wasters at best. Family destroyers at worst.

Schopenhauer

It's probably mostly due to lack of knowledge. When I go to Vegas, the machines look fun, but just like Pachinko, I don't know how to play.

comanteer

Hey man, Pachinko at ITS BEST is a cash cow. I've seen my friends walk out with many thousands of dollars earned after a few lucky hours.

I occasionally play pachinko, on rainy days, day's when my wife goes cleaning crazy, whatever. Yeah there are some folks there, the place I go to, that are seriously addicted, it's all they can talk about, and all that they do, day in and day out. But the thing is, they NEVER cause any problems, how are the pachinko parlors supposed to identify these people as being addicts if they have never been to a doctor and been diagnosed with a gambling addiction?

It's not on the parlors alone, and most addicts, whether it be drinking, drugs, or gambling, rarely see themselves as being or having a problem. This is easier said than done.

I don't believe this 1 second, like if the yakuza will ban themselves their most addicted source of income.

And where did you get the idea that the yakuza are that heavily involved with pachinko parlors? The cops rooted the yakuza out decades ago. The pachinko parlors should be worrying more about the cops and SECTA which is the government organization in charge of regulation. Pachinko earnings are around ￥30 TRILLION annually, so that's pretty damn powerful.

Have visited Japanese ports of Nagoya, Yokohama and Tokyo in the 1980' S and 1990'S during my employment in the Merchant Navy. What struck me most was the Pachinko parlours that were quite common as also video games parlours filled with young children. Gambling as a addiction is disastrous and I have written blog on " GAMBLING ADDICTION AND ITS CURE ".

let me get this straight.  it's encumbent on a family to help the addict by calling the local pachinko parlor to get them banned or kicked out? uhhhh, won't the addict just get on the train and go to the next station to play?  and how the heck are they supposed to ID the person since there is no check when entering a pachinko parlor. are we really paying these legislators to propose crap like this?

 enabling pachinko parlors and other gambling facilities to ban the entry

And what would be the incentive for the parlor to ban these income sources?

Who thinks up this nonsense?

almost impossible to enforce.  and a waste of time and money.  plus the parlours themselves have no incentive to cooperate.

More lip-service laws.

If Japan were serious about this they would just close the places down. But instead, they have just lifted laws on gambling to make it easier and allow casinos. They are not one wit interested in keeping these people out; they WANT these people as a stable source of revenue.

They`ll roll out the red carpet for these same people once the casinos open.

Haha this is hilarious, this will work as well as Japan's labour laws!!

ie. it WONT work doh!!!

And if they put this is place they would HAVE to shut down pachinko as they are all FULL of addicts for the most part, ditto for the horse, boat & bike betting, too funny, but actually rather sad!

Only solution is to increase working hours so that ppl have less time to waste at pachinkos. Time to lift the 100 hour a month overtime cap folks! And no premium Fridays either.

Existing dole bludgers and retirees should be 'hikikomorised' (a compulsory one-week seminar, at home obviously, should do) and chikans destigmatised. Can't believe the solution to gambling addiction was right in front of us the whole time!

Very intelligent. Banned them from pachinko parlors. No problem! They'll go to "Legal" casinos.

used to drunk in a club with a guy who always had two cute girls with him every night, changing every day or two, drinking cocktails. I asked him why he so rich. He told me he was a professional pachinko player. and while he was in there had some side businesses to offer other patrons.

the only good thing about pachinko is that if you forgot your watch, you can alway tell its before or after 10am.

i just hope casinos aren't open 24 hours. if you really want to see a case study of the evil effects on society, with sample groups of millions, try checking out before/after effect on Australia and New Zealand. Shocking considering Japanese are reputed to be the biggest gamblers in the world.

I don't think this is wise. This will probably cause many 'addicts' to go deeper into their holes and may cause problems and heightened tensions within families. There must be a better way!..? Just the first thought that came to mind upon reading this article.

Difficult one, this. I've only been twice over the years. Lost the first time, won the second. It was an enjoyable experience. I'm sure many visitors aren't addicts and can control their occasional flutter. If it's banned, what then? Where do the actual addicts go - who will be there to pick up the pieces?

Once casinos start getting built, pachinko will quickly cease to be a thing.

Casinos will have pachinko parlors by the "balls".

What constitutes an addict though? People love anime, they dress up in cos plays, they go to the arcades or collect manga books and some spend 5 to 10 hours a day playing video games. Others stay at a bar all night or play slot machines. But they still go to school and or work. Most still have a social life and family. But there is a difference between enjoying something in moderation or letting it run and ruin your life or the life of your loved ones.

I personally love the machines, but hate the cigarette smoke. I also wish they would be in English subtitles since there seems to be a good story in most, but I have no idea what is being said. I liked the baseball anime one and there seemed to be almost a Silent Hill one as well. I would of preferred to have a few older machines without all the fancy video screens though, but I could find any.

However for this to be effective they will have to card people at the door and have computer systems in place. Do away with coins/cash on the machines themselves and have only a card for that particular individual that can only be loaded at the front counter and a lock out when time expires. They could at least card, because all the palors I went into had more than enough staff.

It would be nice if they could help the "truly" addicted, but there are always ways around things. And even if you are addicted, but are not a nuacence to society, I do not see a problem.

Once casinos start getting built, pachinko will quickly cease to be a thing.

Nope, never gonna happen. Why you ask? Unless casinos include pachinko machines in them, people are not going to suddenly flock over and attempt to learn casino games. Pachinko doesnt take a hell of a lot of thought behind it, which makes it addicting as hell for many people.

Casino gambling is something totally different, even the slot machines at casinos would turn away the slots-addicted folks at pachinko parlors.

Casinos won't replace Packinko, just add more misery and crime to peoples lives.

Packinko is very common in the countryside as there is nothing to do. Local people won't travel to osaka or Tokyo just for a few hours escape.

The picture at the top of the article shows the typical customer.

The Poor!

The pachinko business takes in massive amounts of money!

Mostly from those that can least afford it......

Hey. Good luck identifying gambling addicts. I have a suggestion. Find all the people who are stimulated by watching balls bounce against pins hour after hour, forgetting their social and family responsibilities, ruining their health, and deriving no net financial reward for it. Those are your addicts. Problem is.... Those are your customers.

Gambling is designed to get you hooked and make you act against your own best interests.

The picture at the top of the article shows the typical customer. The Poor! The pachinko business takes in massive amounts of money! Mostly from those that can least afford it......

Amazing that anyone can tell from the picture that those people are "poor"? Where in the world did you get such insight?

Pachinko at ITS BEST is a cash cow. I've seen my friends walk out with many thousands of dollars earned after a few lucky hours.

When people tell me they have won $2000 at pachinko (or whatever gambling habit they have), I ask how they usually do over the course of a month. That's because a $2000 payday isn't so impressive when the other 29 days of the month averages $100 losses. And that's almost always the case.

Even assuming that someone has figured out how to make a living at it, in most of those cases it means their full time job is sitting in front of a machine conducting a mindless and repetitive task in smoke and noise polluted dump. I'd rather work on an assembly line, thanks.