Pachinko - the model of online poker's future!

[Some Pig]

Pachinko

Gambling is illegal in Japan. However, there is a game called pachinko in which a player buys balls to play with in a slot machine type device that does not accept money because it is not legal to bet and get paid in money in Japan. However, he can exchange these balls for merchandise. Perhaps this is how online poker would work if sending and receiving money thru banks becomes impossible because of legislation that would prevent them from doing so.

The player buys virtual "tickets" that he can use as a buy-in for a tourney. Then he gets paid with tickets that are exchangeable for goods at certain authorized websites that accept these tickets as payments to buy books, gold, bonds, stocks, cars, radios, etc.

This way the players never have to send and receive cash. They just play with tickets the way kids in Circus Circus get tickets to trade into stuffed animals.