Analysts and authors often mistake the comparison of market sizes of casino and pachinko.
Editor's Column

The casino gaming revenue in North America is about US $ 45 billion. Total revenue of the pachinko industry is 20 trillion yen, about US $ 200 billion. In other words, this is the total sales of pachinko operators. You need attention. The meaning of the word "revenue" is different between casinos and pachinko.

As you know, the revenue of the casino is not the player's bet total. The revenue of the casino is the player's bet total minus the player's winning amount. On the other hand, in the pachinko industry, revenue means the total bet amount of the player. In order to compare casino and pachinko, you need to use a figure minus player's win amount from revemue of pachinko operator.

The pachinko operator's Gross Profit rate is about 15%. In pachinko, if you bet $100, you can expect that $ 85 will come back. That is, player loses 15% in this game.

When you correctly compare the market size of the pachinko and casino industries, the market size of pachinko is $ 30 billion ($ 200 billion × 0.15 = $ 30 billion). This is the gross profit of the all pachinko operators in Japan.

There are 9800 pachinko stores in Japan now. Revenue per store is $ 3.60 million, in one year. Of course, there are also big store and small store. But the average is this number.


by　Tsuyoshi Tanaka, editor （Amusement Japan）