Recovery Support Network

Recovery Support Network: what it is and who it helps

The Recovery Support Network is a Japanese organization that runs a telephone counseling service. Its own description of its work is narrow and clear: it aims at early intervention through telephone counseling and at recovery support from the problem¹. That is the whole of its purpose. It does not sell anything, run games or offer treatment beds.

The word "network" matters here. This is a counseling line, not a venue. If you arrived looking for a place to play pachinko or pachislo, this is the wrong page, and the practical guides to Pachinko Village, Minpachi or P-WORLD will tell you where the halls are and what a session costs. If you arrived because you or someone close to you is losing money to the machines and wants to talk to someone who understands that specific problem, this is the right page.

Who it helps is defined by the addiction, not by nationality or residence. The line is built around pachinko and pachislo dependence¹. That focus is unusual. Most gambling helplines in Asia cover betting, casinos and lotteries in general and treat pachinko as one item on a long list. This one goes the other way. If your problem is pachinko or pachislo specifically, you are calling a service that was designed around exactly that.

The scale tells you something practical about how busy it is. About 5,000 telephone consultations come in each year¹. That is roughly a dozen or more calls a day across the year, which means the line is used, known and not a token service. A first conversation on a line with that volume is often short rather than long and unhurried.

Helpline: hours, availability and how to reach it

The network publishes its consultation line on its own site, and that is where the current number appears². Numbers on helpline pages change more often than people expect, so the source itself is the reliable place to check rather than a screenshot or a post.

What the network does not publish in the material here is a fixed set of opening hours. That is worth knowing before you plan a call. Some Japanese gambling-related lines keep very tight windows, and if you assume the same of this one you may be dialing into nothing.

For comparison, here is how the surrounding Japanese services run their hours, so you can see the range:

The pattern is that Japanese gambling support lines cluster into weekday business hours, with a few running into the evening. If you can only call outside those windows, the National Association of Families of Gambling Addicts line at 090-1404-3327 is a mobile number run by affected people and families, which in practice means it is not tied to an office switchboard³.

One more practical point about calling any of these lines: the public sports gambling counseling center takes phone reservations on weekdays from 9:00 to 17:00, but its web reservation form accepts bookings 24 hours a day⁵. If the network's line is busy or closed when you try, a web form elsewhere in the same system may still take your request that night.

Telephone counseling for pachinko and pachislo addiction

This is the core of what the network does. It is a telephone counseling service dedicated to pachinko and pachislo addiction¹. The distinction between counseling and advice is worth spelling out, because first-time callers often expect the wrong thing.

A counseling call is a conversation about what is happening to you and what you want to change. It is not a hotline that will tell you which machine to play, how to manage a bankroll, or whether a particular hall is worth a visit. Nobody on the other end will give you a system. If that is what you want, you are looking for something that does not exist, and the next section explains why.

What the call can do is give you a place to say out loud what you have been doing, to someone who has heard it before and will not be shocked. The network frames its own work as early intervention, which means it is set up for people who are still in the middle of the problem, not only for people who have already stopped¹. You do not have to have quit before you are allowed to call.

The pachislo side deserves its own mention. Pachislot machines work differently from pachinko, with different payout structures and a different rhythm of play, and the people who get into trouble on them often describe a different pattern: longer sessions, more automatic play, less sense of a decision being made. A line that names pachislo alongside pachinko is a line where that pattern will be understood without a long explanation. If you want the mechanics of the machines themselves, the pachislot guide covers how they work and what they pay, and the pachinko parlor guide covers what a visit costs and how the rules work on the floor.

For anyone who is not sure whether what they are doing counts as a problem, the useful question is not how much you have lost but whether you have tried to stop and could not. That is the point at which a counseling line becomes useful, and it is the point the network's early intervention framing is aimed at¹.

Early intervention and recovery support from the problem

The network describes two halves to its work: early intervention by telephone, and recovery support from the problem¹. Those are different jobs and they suit different callers.

Early intervention is for the person who is still playing and starting to worry. The call is about interrupting a pattern before it hardens. Nothing is required of you beforehand. You do not need a diagnosis, a family member's permission or a decision to quit.

Recovery support is for the longer stretch after play has stopped or is being held at a distance. That is the part where the practical questions come up: what to do with the hours that used to go to the parlor, how to handle a route home that passes one, what to say to people who expect you to come along. A telephone line cannot answer all of that, but it can be a regular point of contact, and for a lot of people the regularity is the useful part.

If you are calling about someone else rather than yourself, say so at the start. Family members are a large part of who these lines hear from, and the National Association of Families of Gambling Addicts exists specifically for affected persons and families, which makes it a reasonable second call if the network's line is not the right fit³.

One thing a phone line cannot do is stop you from walking into a parlor. In Japan, that is handled by the halls themselves and by the broader support system rather than by a helpline. If you want to understand how pachinko sits legally and socially in the country, the pachinko explainer and the Japan gambling overview cover that ground.

Help with strategy method scam inquiries

The network says its consultation line has begun receiving inquiries and consultations about so-called strategy method scams². This is a distinct problem from addiction and it is worth understanding on its own terms.

A strategy method, in the pachinko and pachislo world, is a paid system, document, video or membership sold to players as a way to beat the machines. The pitch is always some version of the same claim: there is a pattern, the seller has found it, and for a fee you can have it. The network's own wording treats these as scams, and the fact that its counseling line now fields calls about them tells you how many people pay for one and then want their money back².

The practical shape of the problem is that the money is usually gone. These are not licensed products, there is no regulator standing behind them, and the seller is often a person or a small operation rather than a company with anything to seize. A counseling line can talk you through what happened and help you stop the bleeding, but it is not a complaints body and it cannot recover a payment.

If you are being pitched a strategy method right now, the useful test is simple. Anyone who genuinely had a reliable way to beat pachinko or pachislo would use it rather than sell it, because using it pays better than selling it. That is not a moral point, it is an arithmetic one. The network's decision to take these calls alongside addiction calls reflects how often the two overlap: people who buy systems tend to be people who are already playing more than they meant to².

Where else to get help in Asia

The Recovery Support Network is a Japanese service for a Japanese game. If you are elsewhere in Asia, or you want a line that covers gambling generally rather than pachinko specifically, these are the ones with published hours and numbers.

In Singapore, the National Council on Problem Gambling helpline runs daily from 8am to 11pm, and the same hours apply to its live web chat⁷. The main contact points are:

• The NCPG helpline number is 1800-6-668-668, and you can also reach counselors by webchat if you would rather stay anonymous⁹.
• The National Addictions Management Service answers on 6-RECOVER, which is 6732 6837¹⁰.
• For appointment bookings and questions about exclusion or visit limit status, the NCPG line at 6354 8154 is the one to call¹¹.
• Note that online booking for harm assessment and counseling appointments was unavailable from 11 Sep 2026 to 10 Oct 2026, but that window has ended, so online booking is available again¹³.

In Hong Kong, the Caritas Addicted Gamblers Counselling Centre takes calls and WhatsApp messages on 6829 8764¹⁴. Its opening hours are Monday, Tuesday and Thursday 10:00 to 18:00, and Wednesday, Friday and Saturday 10:00 to 22:00, closed Sundays and public holidays¹⁴.

In South Korea, the gambling addiction text line is #1336, and there is an online service at netline.kcgp.or.kr with a KakaoTalk chatbot for real-time counseling¹⁵. Separately, the KCYCLE Keirin and Speedboat line is 1577-1900, a paid number, open Wednesday and Thursday 09:00 to 18:00 and Friday to Sunday 10:00 to 19:00, with automatic ARS connection outside those hours¹⁶.

In the Philippines, PAGCOR lists accredited help centers including Life Change Recovery Center on (02) 415-7964 or 415-6529, and Bridges of Hope on (02) 622-0193 or 0917 509 8826¹⁸. PAGCOR has also required gambling advertising to carry problem gambling helpline information, which is why you will see these numbers on operator material¹⁹.

In Australia, the GambleAware helpline 1800 858 858 is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week²⁰. In the UK, the National Gambling Helpline is free of charge and runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week²¹.

If your problem is pachinko or pachislo and you are in Japan, the Recovery Support Network is the line built for it, and its consultation number is on its own site². If you are anywhere else in Asia and your problem is gambling in general, one of the lines above will pick up.