According to a report by Pachinko industry site Pachislot Village, SNK Playmore will be shutting down their Pachislot business. They reported that SNK Playmore currently has no new Pachislot machines on file for approval in the new couple months.

Separately, a report on Yugi-Nippon reported that the SNK Playmore will close their Tokyo office at the end of this month. The Tokyo office handles most of the of SNK Playmore’s Pachislot business. The Tokyo staff will be given the option to transfer to the games division at the Osaka main office.

The Pachislot business has been in decline in recent years. Four other companies have left the Pachinko industry due to various reasons. One of the main reasons to the decline is the possibility of gambling legalization in Japan. Pachinko makers are set to face immense competition against foreign multinationals and face addition gambling taxes should the gambling legalization bill were to pass next year.

SNK Playmore’s decision to shut down their Pachislot division is a sharp turn from the remarks that president Koichi Sotyama made earlier this summer “… The Pachislot market is currently suffering from a massive decline of users in their 20’s, and it is important that we develop new machines targeted towards the younger range audience. We are a Pachislot maker as well as a Videogame maker. We will do our best to make Pachislot fans out of videogame fans.”

Sources:

Pachinko Village, Yugi Nippon via Kof Koucha, Professor, Gatoray