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Turning ATMs Into Slot Machines
from the one-armed-bandits dept
Apparently, people aren't as interested in using ATMs in Japan, in part because Japanese banks charge a fee for using the machines. Of course, a simple solution to this would be to remove the fee, but apparently that's way too easy. Instead, the banks are experimenting with a plan to turn some ATMs into slot machines. Every time you do a transaction, you also get a typical slot machine display. If you "win" you can get a free transaction or even a bit of cash back (about $9).
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with my luck
I would "hit the jackpot" with coins and bills flying around everywhere. Then on my next visit, the machine would inform me that I had a $0 balance.
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Fate
On top of that, ATM machines are open only during business hours. It's to prevent the poor bank clerks from losing their jobs. Incidentally, the security on the ATM machines is very poor, and various people (police officers, Pakistani tourists, Chinese students) have made lots of money from driving their cars into the machines late at night and making off with the cash.
Many people in Japan keep their cash in safes at home, because the interest rate is about 0.05%. The more resourceful ones keep money in American banks. There are ways to make a modest living through "micro-importation", buying cheap goods in the USA and re-selling it in Japan, managing Japanese bank accounts in the USA, etc.
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Speaking of which
Just yesterday, two Japanese drug addicts drove their car into an ATM machine, took off with suitcases full of money, and in a scene straight out of Grand Theft Auto, they drove on the wrong side of the highway while being chased by cops, smashed into 3 cars, all of which went up in flames, and a total of 5 people were roasted alive.
http://www.asahi.com/national/update/0720/OSK200507200062.html
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Memory Lane
40 years ago I used to buy gum from a machine that would give you an extra stick about 25% of the time. This was a deliberate feature of the machines - not a mechanical error - and made them quite attractive to kids.
I haven't seen them recently - I think they got banned by some gambling-control law intended to restrict slot machines. I wonder if these Japanese-style ATMs would have any similar legal problems in the EU or USA.
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Re: Another Dorpus classic
ATMs are very strong, so I thought it unlikely that a car could be used to break one open without destroying the car too.
Here's Dorpus' story (in Googlish):
To escape from job quality, 5 human being killed or being injured car destruction by fire Hyogo
* It was a phone card vending machine, not an ATM
* The car was trying to pull it from a telephone box with a rope, not crash into it
* There were no suitcases of money
* Two people died, three were injured
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Re: Another Dorpus classic
A few years ago there was a rash of ATM machine robberies in Japan, in which the culprits used construction vehicles to smash open the ATMs. The theives stole the construction vehilces from unguarded construction sites at night.
The makers of the construction vehicles had to make them harder to steal specifically in response to these ATM thefts.
http://www.atmmarketplace.com/news_story_14537.htm
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Re: Another Dorpus classic
doesn't only happen in Japan...
http://www.rte.ie/news/2004/0629/robbery.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hereford/wor cs/4586177.stm
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Obvious one-liner
If you bank with Citicorp, your ATMs may already be slot machines.
*rimshot*
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