name: pachinko
aliases: [pachinko, pachinko machine]
category: Interaction
related: [casino, plinko]
description: |
  PACHINKO — a rectangle of pins. Pick your drop.

  play pachinko              Take the single seat.
  bet 10                     Commit 10 credits and reveal the board.
  5 / drop 5                 Choose top slot 5 and drop the ball.
  bet / rebet                Repeat your last wager and deal a new board.
  table                      Show a blank board and the pay table.
  stop                       Leave once no ball is in flight.

  Every bet deals a fresh board of eight pockets and shows it before you
  choose. Seven pockets are filler prizes drawn from 0.1x to 1.5x, mostly
  0.5x and below, so the board is always busy. The eighth is a guaranteed
  premium above 1.5x: usually 1.7x or 2x, occasionally 5x or 10x, and
  about one board in 900 carries the 100x jackpot. Multipliers at or above
  2x are whole numbers; below 2x they move in 0.1x steps. A DOUBLE appears
  on about one board in twenty.

  Filler prizes always return something, so a board is never a wall of
  zeroes. Small fractions (0.1x, 0.5x) are the common texture; the
  guaranteed premium is the reason to aim carefully.

  Eight numbered top slots crown the board. A drop is 20 fair 50:50
  bounces; the side walls reflect the ball, so the distribution is widest
  in the middle and piles up against the walls. Because you see the board
  first, the best slot moves from board to board. The pins stagger from
  row to row, so even a ball that holds its lane visibly weaves between
  them.

  DOUBLE doubles EVERY prize on the board and drops the ball again for
  free from any slot. The DOUBLE space stays where it is, so the doubling
  can chain without limit: 2x becomes 4x, 8x, 16x... for as long as you
  keep landing on it. The board grows hotter and brighter with each hit.

  Multipliers INCLUDE your stake: 0.1x returns a tenth, 0.5x returns half,
  2x returns double, and the 100x jackpot returns one hundred times
  (before any DOUBLE).

  Return is measured for a player who always chooses the best top slot:
  exactly 100% — the house makes its money on slot choice, not on the
  board. Dropping from a uniformly random slot returns about 80%. The table
  command shows a blank board and the pay table; a House Edge instrument
  reveals the exact odds. Fractional credits round without bias so the
  average holds even for one-credit bets.

  You cannot leave or re-bet mid-board. Shutdown refunds a committed
  board; disconnecting forfeits an unfinished drop. A payout that cannot
  be persisted keeps its stake pending for recovery rather than claiming
  a paid win. Returns that would overflow the economy are capped.