I'm I'm not mistaken, hanafuda cards were actually pretty popular with yakuza gangsters! But like tattoos, they've shed at least some of their social stigma in Japan by now - Nintendo even made a hanafuda set with Super Mario characters a while back. (They used to be a playing card manufacturer before they were a video game company!)
They're very pretty and I'm tempted by them, but I'd never find anyone interested in playing, my girlfriend (wait, now she's my FIANCEE!) would want to hang me, and they'd just end up being another thing collecting dust - I've tried to reduce the number of dust collectors in my life. It's a shame, too - it's looking less likely that the Kickstart will succeed. She has under three weeks to go and is barely over half-way to her goal.