pachinkoanswer.html

Two answers:

This was written in Feb 2001:

A Bristol based company, BS Group has announced a partnership with Tokyo
Plaza Group, with the intention of opening a chain of pachinko parlours
across Europe. The first location will be in London and should open within
the next six months.

I don't know if it's opened yet. Also, BS Group (bsgroup.co.uk) has changed
its name to Gaming International; their site is pretty crap.

Pachinko finds slot in London

Simon Bowers

Friday July 6, 2001

The Guardian

Pachinko, the pinball-style slot machine game that has gripped Japanese gamblers, is coming to the London Stock Exchange.
Suh Dong-Ho, who owns 17 of Tokyo's many pachinko parlours and dominates the lucrative industry, is in talks about strengthening ties with British leisure firm BS Group, in which he controls a stake of more than 40%. Pachinko is a form of vertical pinball in which a player shoots small metal balls into a maze of pins, aiming for exits with varying pay-out values. The pachinko industry is estimated to generate annual turnover of about £184bn and huge profits. According to BS Group deputy chairman Peter Catto, Suh Dong-Ho has sought a presence on the London Stock Exchange because a listing in Tokyo would be deemed "culturally unacceptable". In February, the tycoon's Tokyo Plaza Group sold the Miyadera Gaming Centre to BS in exchange for a 41.5% stake - then valued at £7.8 m - in the company. Yesterday, both companies indicated that further sales could be imminent. BS Group chief executive Clark Osbourne is due to meet Suh Dong-Ho on Monday. The result could effectively be a reverse takeover of BS Group. Mr Catto said: "The company [BS Group] was going nowhere last year, pachinko has transformed its prospects." A year ago, BS was in talks to merge with Premier Telesports, the betting company run by former boxer George Walker, but these ended in failure. Those close to BS Group, which manages three greyhound racing stadiums in Britain, estimate it could make a profit of about £1m this year, compared with a loss of a similar figure in 2000. The name pachinko comes from the Japanese "pachi-pachi", meaning the click of small objects. There are about 4m pachinko machines in Japan.