Pachinko History

Pachinko is a Japanese pinball machine game played on a vertical machine with small steel balls. Pachinko, a popular form of entertainment in Japan, is said to be a thirty-trillion yen industry. In Japan, the first pinball hall opened in Osaka Prefecture in the Taisho Era.
Takeichi Masamura
is the founder of today’s pachinko. And he is responsible for making Nagoya the
kingdom of pachinko. In the eleventh year of Showa he opened a pinball hall. After the war, he opened a pinball hall again, and started making pachinko machines.
One of his earliest achievements was “the Masamura Gauge,” an arrangement of nails.

 It became the basis for most of today’s pachinko machines. His pachinko machines soon spread all over Japan, and he was kept busy adjusting the machines
and managing pinball halls.
The pinball-like
game of Pachinko is extremely popular in Japan. Although gambling is illegal in that country, often Pachinko Parlors can skew this law by offering non-cash prizes.
Not to far from the parlor, counters can be found were you can exchange your prize
for money. This game can be found in many American casinos.

The term Pachinko
is derived from the Japanese word pachi-pachi, meaning the clicking of small objects or the crackling of fire.
In the old days,people used to launch the small steel balls by hand, one at a time. Nowadays,pachinko machines are computerized. The sounds and graphics of these machines
have made pachinko more and more exciting.