Editing Pachinko (section)

== Prizes ==
[[File:Pachinko balls.jpg|thumb|Pachinko balls]]
Winnings take the form of additional balls, which players may either use to keep playing or exchange for prizes ({{Nihongo|2=景品|3=keihin}}). When players wish to exchange their winnings, they must call a parlor staff member by using a call button located at the top of their station. The staff member will then carry the player's balls to an automated counter to see how many balls they have.<ref name="Plotz"/>

After recording the number of balls the player won and the number of the machine they used, the staff member will then give the player a voucher or card with the number of balls stored in it. Some modern machines can count the balls automatically, without the need for staff. The player then hands it in at the parlor's exchange center to get their prizes.  Among the array of prizes available, there will invariably be an item known as the "special prize" ({{Nihongo|2=特殊景品|3=tokushu keihin}} typically a small silver or gold novelty item encased in plastic) that can be sold for cash at an outside establishment in the vicinity of the parlor.<ref name="Plotz"/>

Special prizes are awarded to the player in amounts corresponding to the number of balls won.  For example, one special prize worth ¥1500 outside the parlor might be offered to a customer per 400 balls won, assuming each ball originally cost 4 yen.  The vast majority of players opt for the maximum number of special prizes offered for their ball total, selecting other prizes only when they have a remaining total too small to receive a special prize.<ref name="Plotz">{{cite web |last=Plotz |first=David |url=http://www.japansociety.org/pachinko_nation |title=Pachinko Nation |publisher=[[Japan Society, New York]] |date=4 November 2008 |access-date=9 November 2009 |archive-date=20 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170920173309/http://www.japansociety.org/pachinko_nation |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Besides the special prizes, prizes may be as simple as chocolate bars, pens or cigarette lighters, or as complicated as electronics, bicycles and other items. Under Japanese law, cash cannot be paid out directly for pachinko balls, but there is usually a small establishment located nearby, separate from the game parlor but sometimes in a separate unit as part of the same building, where players may sell special prizes for cash. This is tolerated by the police because the pachinko parlors that pay out goods and special prizes are nominally independent from the shops that buy back the special prizes.<ref name="Kushner">{{cite web|first=David|last=Kushner|title=The Secret Life of Pachinko |url=https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-secret-life-of-pachinko|work=[[IEEE Spectrum]]|author-link=David Kushner (writer)|date=1 October 2010|access-date=2 October 2010}}</ref> 

Some pachinko parlors may even give out vouchers for groceries at a nearby [[supermarket]].  The ''[[yakuza]]'' ([[organized crime]]) were formerly often involved in prize exchange, but a great deal of police effort beginning in the 1960s and ramping up in the 1990s has largely done away with their influence.<ref name="Plotz" />  In Tokyo, the special prize exchange is handled exclusively by the {{ill|Tokyo Union Circulation|jp|東京商業流通組合}} company (known as TUC), which sells pachinko and slot parlors gold slivers in standardized plastic cases, which it buys back from winning customers at its "TUC Shop" windows.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.toyoukyo.or.jp/bohai.html|title=新流通システム|publisher=Toyoukyo.or.jp|access-date=24 June 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20121219175822/http://www.toyoukyo.or.jp/bohai.html|archive-date=19 December 2012 |language=Japanese |trans-title=Promotion of activities to eliminate gangsters that intervene in the industry}}</ref>

The three-shop system<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.casinoonline.jp/basic/onlinecasino-law/ |title=オンラインカジノは違法か？合法か？問題に結論！【5分でわかる！】 |access-date=February 27, 2021}}</ref> is a system employed by pachinko parlors to exchange for keihin (prizes), usually with items such as cigarette lighters or ball-point pens. These items are carried to a nearby shop and exchanged for cash as a way of circumventing gambling laws.