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Re: TILT! Counterfeit pachinko cards send $588 million down the chute.
Follow-up to Peter Wayner's post yesterday:
The New York Times, May 24, 1996, p. D8.
American Banknote Gets Into Pachinko
The American Banknote Corporation said yesterday that it
was developing optical-reading technology for a group of
Japanese companies to help prevent counterfeit prepaid
cards in the pachinko business.
Pachinko, which is similar to pinball, is played in some
18,000 parlors in Japan and has grown in popularity in the
last few years.
Morris Weissman, American Banknote's chairman, said
American Banknote's holographics unit was making cash-value
cards and machines to read them. The cards and machines
will be tested in Japan in July, and "if certain criteria
are met," more will be installed in August, he said.
He said cards would authorize a person to play a game of
pachinko and win money. The cards, he said had "specific
algorithms and codes we believe are almost impossible to
duplicate."
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