Eldery Japanese in Kobe banned from playing pachinko

Elderly residents at day care centres in Kobe Japan have been banned from playing cards, Pachinko and other forms of gambling as the city’s Municipal Assembly voted to ban those forms of activities as they foster a self-reliance on the part of the elderly.

This week the Kobe Municipal Assembly unanimously adopted a local ordinance as the country’s first municipality to ban day-care centers operating under the public nursing-care insurance system from letting elderly people play such games.

Under the ordinance, day-care centers cannot regularly provide activities such as pachinko and mah-jongg that may “stir up the passion for gambling.”

Also companies offering those activities will be banned from advertising to the elderly there.

Kobe city officials said day-care centers pitching these “casino type” activities are springing up nationwide, running counter to the spirit of the public nursing-care insurance system, which is partly funded by taxpayers’ money.