Las Vegas at Home, by Way of Tokyo

I was skeptical when I first heard that people were buying slot machines for home use. I mean, how much fun can it possibly be to win your own money? But it turns out these weren’t those slot machines. What I’d stumbled into was a community that bought, restored and traded Japanese slot machines known as Pachislos. Technically, they’re not gambling devices, though you are taking your hearing into your own hands if you put too many of these in your home (they are brain-rattlingly loud.) Like most collectors, they form a slightly bizarre, highly obsessive community, and the machines themselves have a really interesting history . From the Home section of the Times, Japanese Slot Machines: Noisy, Tacky and Coveted.