Pachinko is a Japanese gaming device used for amusement and gambling. A pachinko machine resembles a vertical pinball machine, but with no flippers and a large number of relatively small balls. The player fires a ball up into the machine, controlling only its initial speed. The ball then cascades down through a dense forest of pins. In most cases, the ball falls to the bottom and is lost, but if it instead goes into certain pockets, more balls are released as a jackpot. The machines are widespread in establishments called "pachinko parlors". Pachinko parlors have the reputation of gambling establishments everywhere - garish decoration; over-the-top architecture; a low-hanging haze of cigarette smoke; the constant din of the machines, music, and announcements; and flashing lights. Because gambling for cash is illegal in Japan, balls won cannot be exchanged directly for cash in the parlor. Instead, the balls are exchanged for token prizes, which can then be taken outside and traded in for cash at a business that is nominally separate from the parlor, and may be run by organized crime (yakuza). Pachinko machines were first built during the 1920s as a children's toy called "corinth game" (korinto gēmu); based on and named after an American game called "Corinthian Bagatelle". Pachinko then emerged as an adult pastime around 1930. A highly addictive game, Pachinko by 1976 had reached epedemic proportions in Japan and had been introduced into the United States. Owing to American’s short attention spans it quickly lost popularity and the fad was over by the 1980s.