Pachinko

Pachinko

Pachinko is a Japanese gaming device. A pachinko machine resembles a vertical pinball machine, but has no flippers and uses a large number of small balls. The player fires balls into the machine, which then cascade down through a dense forest of pins. If the balls go into certain locations, sequences of events are triggered that result in more balls being released; these balls can then be exchanged for prizes. Pachinko machines were originally strictly mechanical, but modern ones have incorporated extensive electronics, becoming similar to video slot machines.

The machines are widespread in establishments called parlors, which feature a number of slot machines; hence, they operate and look similar to casinos. Modern pachinko machines are highly customizable, keeping enthusiasts continuously entertained. Because gambling for cash is illegal in Japan, balls won cannot be exchanged directly for cash in the parlor; instead the balls are exchanged for tokens, which are then taken outside and exchanged for cash at a place nominally separate from the parlor and possibly run by organized crime.

As an indicator of the popularity of pachinko in Japan, Japanese government estimates of the annual turnover of the pachinko industry are in the region of 29 trillion yen. To put this in perspective, this is about twice the annual turnover of Japan's automobile industry, and approximately equivalent to the estimated annual turnover of the global narcotics trade.

Pachinko parlors are known for tweaking their machines to maximize their profits without intimidating customers, which means that most machines have different payout settings than what their manufacturers claim. The Japanese police can tolerate such manipulation as long as it happens outside of business hours; generally, those that cause a loss to the player are found in greater numbers.

Resetting of machines every day before opening hours is a feature of all parlors, because of the strict enforcement of closing times implying some players having to give up their machines when they hit a string of jackpots. Those whose machines are in payout mode at this time are allowed to collect their balls for the duration of the payout. Some parlors allow members to hold a particular machine across operating sessions. Timing is another factor in determining how parlors set their machines: holidays, when many people play pachinko, are favorable because many play it for leisure and the parlors are keen to attract them to come back for more. Weekends are unfavorable because the majority of players have only this time to play.

The layout of the different setting machines is a psychological method of attracting players; machines near the entrance are usually set at a high payout rate. When people walk by the parlor and see players at those machines with a large number of balls, they are more inclined to go inside and play the other machines even though they are at lower settings. For this purpose, many parlors employ "sakuras" to sit at these machines and emulate players winning a large number of balls; they are required to return these balls to the parlor free of charge minus their wages.

Betting Pool

A betting pool, sports lottery, sweep or office pool if done at work, is a form of gambling, specifically a variant of parimutuel betting influenced by lotteries, where gamblers pay a fixed price into a pool from which taxes and a house take or vig are removed, and then make a selection on some outcome, usually related to sport. In an informal game, the vig is usually quite small or non-existent. The pool is evenly divided between those that have made the correct selection. There are no odds involved; each winner's payoff depends simply on the number of gamblers and the number of winners. True parimutuel betting, which was historically referred to as pool betting, involves both odds calculations and variable wager amounts.

Contestants predict the outcome of sporting events that take place at a later time. The concept was introduced in 1923 by Littlewoods Pools where it was known as totoclarification needed and based on football soccer matches. Today in England, sports lotteries are more commonly referred to as football pools. American sports lotteries often do not require contestants to purchase a lottery ticket or make an initial wager. Hockey pools are common in North America, and footy tipping in Australia.

Dead Mans Hand

The dead man's hand is a two-pair poker hand, namely aces and eights. This card combination gets its name from a legend that it was the five-card-draw hand held by Wild Bill Hickok, when he was murdered on August 2, 1876, in Saloon No. 10 at Deadwood, South Dakota.

According to the popular version, Hickok's final hand included the aces and eights of both black suits. As Hickok's biographer, Joseph Rosa puts it: the accepted version is that the cards were the ace of spades, the ace of clubs, two black eights clubs and spades, and the queen of clubs as the kicker. However, Rosa says no contemporary source for this exact hand can be found. The earliest detailed reference to the dead man's hand is 1886, where it was described as a full house consisting of three jacks and a pair of tens.

In accounts that mention two aces and eights, there are various claims regarding the identity of Hickok's fifth card, suggestions that he had discarded one card and/or that the draw was curtailed by the shooting and Hickok therefore never received his fifth card.

In the HBO television historical drama series Deadwood, a nine of diamonds is depicted, although the show posits that another player concocted the hand, to further his own newsworthiness. An episode of Ripley's Believe it or Not shows Hickok holding a queen of clubs. An episode of Quantum Leap also shows Sam's love interest holding a Dead Man's Hand.

Historical displays in the town of Deadwood, including one in a reconstruction of the original Saloon No. 10, also show the nine of diamonds as the fifth card. The Lucky Nugget Gambling Hall, which holds the historic site of Saloon No. 10, instead displays a jack of diamonds. The Adams Museum in Deadwood has a display that claims to be the actual squeezer cards held by Hickok. The hand is: ace of diamonds, ace of clubs, eight of hearts, eight of spades, and the queen of hearts. The Stardust on the Las Vegas Strip has used a five of diamonds in related displays and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Homicide Division uses the dead man's hand in its insignia, as does the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System.