Tag Archives: launched

Pachinko!

March 30, 2020   Game guide   No comments

Pachinko is an arcade or slot machine game that is particularly popular in Japan. There it is played in special rooms called Pachinko Parlors where you can find rows and rows of Pachinko Machines.

Pachinko is a similar kind of game to pinball, but played on a vertical machine, and without the flippers you get on the sides of a pinball machine.

The player buys their pachinko balls and drops them into the loading area. They then start launching the balls, propelling them into the play area. The play area looks rather like that on a pinball machine, with a pattern of upright pins and a number of pockets or gates into which the balls can fall.

Vintage machines use a spring loaded metal flipper or lever to launch the balls. But modern machines fire the balls electronically. The player turns a dial that just controls the frequency with which they are launched.

Once launched the balls bounce around the playing area, hitting against the pins. Unlike in pinball, where the player can bat the ball around the play area using the flippers, in pachinko the player has no control at all over what happens to a ball once it has been launched.

Usually the ball will fall through the pins to the bottom. But sometimes it falls into one of the winning pockets. This gives the player a number of extra balls.

Most modern machines include a slot game which is triggered if a ball falls into a particular pocket. It is this game that gives the big jackpot wins, ie large numbers of extra balls.

Players can choose to use the balls they win to keep playing, or exchange them for tokens or prizes such as pens or cigarette lighters. In Japan, cash gambling is illegal, so cash prizes cannot be awarded. To circumvent this, the tokens can usually be taken to a convenient exchange centre – generally located very close by, maybe even in a separate room next to the pachinko parlor.

As you can tell, there is very little skill involved in pachinko, especially in the modern machines where the only thing the player controls is the frequency with which the balls are shot onto the playing area. Apart from that it is purely a game of chance!

Read More

Online Casino History – A Brief History of Success

October 2, 2019   Game skill   No comments

A Brief Account of Initial Days of Online Gambling
Online casino history started in the decade of 1990. In the year 1995, the first ever online casino hit the market and marveled everyone. The name of this internet based casino was Internet Casinos Inc. (in short, ICI). The first ever virtual casino was launched on 18th August 1995. During the initial phase this company started to operate from the islands of Caicos and Turks. Internet Casinos Inc. started its operation outside America because they feared prosecution from the Government of United States of America.

Tell Us Something More About the History of Virtual Betting
What is the total duration of the online casino history? The answer of this question is 10 years. Casinos have always been popular among human world. However, a gambling aficionado has to travel long distances to play and enjoy the fun of gambling. Online casinos have helped these betting lovers to enjoy the games right from their home. Thus, you don’t have to move from one place to another to play the virtual casino games. Some of these characteristic features of virtual casinos make it immensely popular among gambling aficionados.

Is online casino history absolutely smooth? Wasn’t there any hiccup in the entire history of internet based gambling? Yes, there were many hindrances in the entire progress path of internet based casinos. The main hindrance that online gambling industry faces is the legal threat to it. Still now, the main hiccup to online betting of USA is UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act). According to this law, any kind of payments related to online betting is illegal. This law does not make online gambling illegal directly. Consequently, many online casinos have stopped allowing players from America. These are some of the hiccups faced by online gambling industry in the entire online casino history.

Now, Let Us Check The Evolutionary Chronology of Online Casino History

1. In the Year 1994, a new Act was passed by the Government of Antigua-Barbuda, known as ‘The Free Trade and Processing Zone Act, 1994’. Many internet based casinos as well as sports-books have license of the same and this license is considered as one of the most popular licenses among the internet based gambling industry.

2. One of the largest providers of software in online betting is Microgaming. It is a huge software development company, which has mastered the techniques of generating software for online betting sites. This company was founded in the year of 1994. In the following year, that is 1995, another software developing giant called Cryptologic was launched.

3. 1996 has special significance in online casino history. In this year, the first internet based casino site that accepts real money was launched. In the month of October of 1996, InterCasino first launched such a virtual casino that deals with real money.

4. First ever gambling related Act was introduced by a US Congress Senator named Jon Kyl. The year was 1998. The name of this Act was Internet Gambling Prohibition Act. According to this, a company will be regarded as illegal if it offers betting services to any American. This Act was not passed by the US Senate. A revised version of this Act was also placed in the US Senate in the following year, i.e. 1999, but this was also voted down by the Senate. In the same year, a renowned company called Frost and Sullivan published a research report and mentioned in it that online gambling has generated a mammoth amount of revenue of US$ 834.5 million.

5. Internet Gambling Prohibition Act was introduced by a Congress representative, Bob Goodlatte, in the US House of Representatives in the year 2000. However, this Act was also voted down and it failed to acquire the required two-third majority vote. In the year 2000, Cryptologic had published their annual report where it was mentioned that 680,000 customers had used their system of electronic payment already. 2000 was an auspicious year for Cryptologic. It got listed in NASDAQ and received the symbol, CRYP.

6. Year 2004 was specifically important for online gambling. In this year itself, WTO (World Trade Organization) ruled against US regarding legal issues and sided with the Government of Antigua-Barbuda. According to WTO, it is unethical and illegal for American government to restrict online gambling because it allows land based casinos as well as horserace-betting sites to operate in US.

In the same year, Christiansen Capital Advisors has shown figures that 51% of the total revenues from online betting across the world (approximately US$ 8.5 Million) came from United States of America itself.

Thus, we can conclude that online casino history is not bed of roses and is full of ups and downs.

Read More
« Older posts