Though Japanese casinos do not exist in the typical sense, gambling has
enjoyed a long and popular history in Japan. There are several gambling
options that remain active in Japan and make up the closest equivalent
to Japanese casinos. Many of Japan's people believe that Japanese
casinos would be beneficial to the economy, and perhaps the most vocal
supporter of Japanese casinos is governor Shintaro Ishihara, who has
been pushing for years to establish a Japanese casino in Tokyo. In fact,
Ishihara recently announced his intentions to build one or more
Japanese casinos along the Tokyo waterfront, citing the additional
revenue the construction would bring to the Japanese government.
Meanwhile, a large number of Japanese enjoy playing at pachinko parlors,
which are the closest things to Japanese casinos available. Pachinko is
a hugely popular game in Japan. It is played on a machine that
resembles a vertical pinball machine outfitted with a maze of slender
pins. To play pachinko, you purchase a number of steel balls (rather
than casino chips) that are about the size of standard ball bearings,
and release them into the pachinko machine, with the objective of
getting them to fall into accumulative slots, score points, and win even
more balls. Players can physically manipulate the pachinko machine with
a series of levers in an attempt to control the falling of the balls.
When the game is finished, you cash in the pachinko balls at a nearby
shop separate from the parlor. When Japanese casinos are built, they
will no doubt contain as many pachinko machines as American casinos have
slot machines.
Mahjong is another popular gambling game in Japan, which is played in
settings similar to what might be considered Japanese casinos. Though
the game originated in China, it has found favor with the Japanese
gambling community. Mahjong is similar to the card game of gin rummy,
though the rules are more complicated and it is played with tiles
instead of cards. The loud clicking of mahjong tiles on a board is a
distinguishing characteristic of the game. Though traditionally mahjong
is a four-player game, the Japanese have adopted a three-player form in
addition to the typical four-player version. After visiting a mahjong
parlor in Japan, you could easily imagine mahjong rooms instead of poker
rooms at a Japanese casino.
The majority of the Japanese public believes that Governor Ishihara has
enough political clout to overturn the prohibition of Japanese casinos.
Currently, at least three other Japanese governors are interested in the
idea of building Japanese casinos in their districts. If they are
successful, the typical Japanese casino may have considerable
similarities to American casinos - except, of course, for the pachinko
machine banks and the mahjong rooms!
