[All] A shot for 100 won… ‘Jjanggeumpo’, the gambling game of children in the 90s

A shot for 100 won… 90s children’s gambling ‘Jjanggeumpo’

“Jjangkyungpo! Parapiripo! Yappy!”

If you were born in the 1990s, you will know the sound of a jackpot exploding. It may also be familiar to those born in the 1980s.

This game machine, which is unclear as to when it was first introduced in Korea, has made many children laugh and cry.

A time of abundance when you could buy lottery tickets, tickets, and junk food with just a 100 won coin.

The Jjanggeumpo game machine was an 'evil' machine that emptied children's pockets.

The Jjanggeuppo machines were mostly located in front of stationery stores.

The gentle sheep who went into the stationery store to buy supplies had suddenly become a gambler sitting in front of a Jjanggeumpo machine and screaming. Jjanggeumpo is a slang term for rock, paper, scissors.

If you put 100 won in the Jjangkwangpo machine and press one of the rock, paper, or scissors buttons, the machine will automatically play rock, paper, or scissors, and the winner will take the coin.

When the player playing the game wins, the roulette wheel with numbers written on it spins dazzlingly and then stops.

If you roll 3 out of the numbers 1 to 20, you get 300 won back, and if you roll 8, you get 800 won back.

The maximum is 2000 won for 20 people, which is equivalent to a jackpot in a casino.

When the jackpot is hit, the machine makes a cheerful “Yappi” sound and loudly spits out 20 coins.

Elementary school students sitting crowded in front of the Jjanggeumpo machine cheered.

The lucky winner receives envious looks and gathers his hands together like ferns, filling them with coins.

I am immersed in the happiness that I can buy anything for that day.

Even if you buy everything you want, such as Mandeuk, Mini Car, and Hakjong, you still have money left over. At that time, the value of 2,000 won to an elementary school student was equivalent to 20,000 won today.

But the happiness was short-lived. If I won 2,000 won, I would lose 5,000 won again. The sight of an elementary school student crouching in front of a Jjang-Kae-Po game machine was not much different from the sight of an adult spending a day at Kangwon Land. Looking back now, the Jjang-Kae-Po game machine was a sophisticated commercial tactic. It was a children’s version of gambling that exquisitely combined the roulette and slot machines of a casino.

It's not like I reformed as an adult.

After more than 20 years, I still stake my happiness on low odds.

It wouldn't be much different from investing in stocks, bitcoin, or real estate.

I live each day dreaming of some big opportunity that will change my life.