Pachio-Kun is a cute way to introduce children to Japan’s favorite addiction

destructoid.com:

From a young age, video games have covertly been teaching me to gamble, which is funny because I don’t. I think my parents took me to a casino for my 19th birthday. I won $300 on a slot machine and decided to never gamble again. That means I beat the system. I beat it for $300.

I think video games have just taught me how boring gambling is. Why leave winning up to random chance when I can use my big beefy thumbs to take me up gratitude lane? Even games that mix in some skill aren’t that interesting when I can play against Sam from Sam & Max in Poker Night in the Inventory. Oh, I guess you can’t really buy that anymore. Okay, then against bikini’d women in Xtreme Beach Volleyball 2.

I digress; video games have been at it essentially since video games became a thing. It was no different in Japan, except they also had Pachinko games. Take Mezase Pachi Pro: Pachio-kun for example, which is potentially the cutest way to feed a burgeoning addiction.

If you don’t know what Pachinko is, I’ll tell you this: it definitely isn’t gambling. Gambling is illegal in Japan, after all. No, this is nothing like it. You win balls, not money, then you take those balls and trade them for a special token. You can then take that special token somewhere else (completely unrelated to the pachinko establishment, I assure you) and sell it for money. See? Nothing like gambling.

Despite not being gambling, a not insignificant percentage of Japan’s GDP is generated by Pachinko and Pachislot. It’s rooted in the country’s culture, and like gambling over here, it’s ruined some lives.

So here’s Pachio-kun to teach you the basics. Like in, say, Casino Kid, you roam the parlor as an anthropomorphic pachinko ball. There are rows of machines – 72 in all. Only