Summer Carnival/Amusement Park Rigged Games

[Kitaman]

OK I kinda knew it but still ponied up money for claw machines. They are rigged:

Any games for the kids that are at least a good chance to win (shooter games perhaps)? Or are they all rigged as bad as the claw?

 

[mets1090]

I'm pretty sure there isn't a single arcade/carnival game out there that you can beat. The basketball ones come to mind as a possibility. Sure the hoop is like 60% the size of a regular hoop but I guess it's at least possible to get the muscle memory down.

It's just like gambling at a casino. If there was a way to beat any individual game, you'd know it by now.

 

[mauconnfan]

I'm pretty sure there isn't a single arcade/carnival game out there that you can beat. The basketball ones come to mind as a possibility. Sure the hoop is like 60% the size of a regular hoop but I guess it's at least possible to get the muscle memory down.

It's just like gambling at a casino. If there was a way to beat any individual game, you'd know it by now.

Well wish it were true. I drilled 3 in a row in San Diego and came away with a huge Orca for my 10 year old son at the time and had to bring it back. Guess what, 19 years old he never lets us throw that one thing away - it's a memory of my muscle memory I guess huh? LOL

 

[Thirty Three]

I've won the basketball game a few times, so has my father and my uncle. If you're a good shooter you can do it once in a while, most people, most of the time, are going to fail though.

Most all of the games are rigged (or just horrible odds). The pyramid of bottles that you have to knock over with a softball are weighted with sand, etc.

Some of the games where you go against other carnival goers may be straight up. I think the way they make money there is to line up 6 people to play against each other for $2 each and give away a $4 stuffed toy.

 

[Kitaman]

I've won a huge stuffed animal for my daughter but it was one of those ring toss games (I know those are probably the worst). I'm headed to a few parks this year and wanted to impresss my wife, but it doesn't appear that will happen.

For many years I was naive (had a feeling) and now feel so stupid. Hell I can't even win against guess your age guys, and I look very young, or so I thought.

 

[EdgewoodNHV]

It's just like gambling at a casino. If there was a way to beat any individual game, you'd know it by now.

And if it did exist, they'd just get rid of it. Casinos/carnivals don't operate on the business model, "Well Earl looks like he's having a rough go of it, let's give him some free money!"

 

[Danzz]

The easiest carnival games are at (or were at) Circus Circus in Vegas. Everybody wins and in 10 minutes you will have more worthless stuffed things than you can carry. All the rest are rigged. Carnies aren't the most altruistic people.

 

[UCweCONN]

The all-time worst carnival game is the one where you have a machine gun bb gun and have to shoot the entire target out without leaving any hanging chads. It's completely impossible for two reasons: they don't hold enough bb's and the gun shoots way too fast to be able to target accurately enough. In order to win, you basically have to outline the target with bb strikes and cut it out. Not happening.

 

[upstater]

OK I kinda knew it but still ponied up money for claw machines. They are rigged:

Any games for the kids that are at least a good chance to win (shooter games perhaps)? Or are they all rigged as bad as the claw?

I have a 6 year old who is an absolute devotee to the claw game. She was almost over it when some punk kid walked up to her, trying to be kind, and he showed her the trick to "winning every time." I watched him d what he did, and yes he won, and gave my girl the stuffed animal, but I've never been able to reproduce it.

My 6 year old played a pong game (beer pong without the beer) and managed to get a ball into all 15 different cups arranged into a triangle. Adults were there that couldn't do it, I couldn't do it, and she managed it. Feeing superior, she tried to win a second prize, and managed to get the balls into 3 random cups.

 

[UConn17]

the game where you try to get the beer bottle to stand up can be done easily with practice

 

[IMind]

I found a claw machine once that obviously had something wrong with it because it actually picked up everything... between my kids and my nieces and nephews they cleaned out the machine.

 

[August_West]

You ever see that game with the led squares and you have to hit a button to stack them to the top as they move faster and faster? They give away huge prizes ( iPad. Play stations, Xbox)
Last year I took my daughter and her friends to the Westbrook cinema and decided to try that game out while waiting for them in the lobby. I started playing it and was doing well but not winning but was convinced it was fixed. Because I was getting close, a group of a dozen or so early teen boys hanging out started watching. I pumped a 20 dollar bill in there and about 5 or 6 tries in I actually won. The gaggle of kids exploded and coincidentally my daughter and her friends got out of the movie at almost that time and walked over to see what the commotion was, only to see her 47 year old dad high fiving and getting slapped on the back by a bunch of 14 year olds. Her embarrassment quickly turned to amazement when she walked up and I said " pick something out" she picked out the Xbox and I strutted out of that place like the baddest on earth while seeing a hang of kids look at me with wonder and awe.
It is said that when the movies end and the workers are sweeping up for the night, you can still hear the echoes of the night the fat old man won an Xbox.

 

[Hoophound]

I'm with Mau on the basketball game. I was visiting Connecticut in 2009 or so and my daughter was about 18 months old at the time. She and my wife flew into Bradley around 11pm one Friday to join me on the trip. They had been delayed multiple times and my daughter had a bad cold. Between the time traveling, cabin pressure, sickness and the late hour of day, she was in a complete and total meltdown when they finally arrived in CT. My wife was in only slightly better shape and she was in no mood for my tales of golf in the autumn air or how my buddy and I killed off 16 slices each at lunch that day. Apparently, my daughter screamed all the way there and if you knew my wife, she can't take that shot from any kid, even her own.

Any who, i killed my time waiting for them to arrive by playing games at a fair with some old friends. I was on fire on the basketball game and won my choice of huge stuffed animal. I chose a Husky that looked a lot like the new UConn mascot, knowing my daughter knew CT and Huskies go hand in hand even at 18 months old. I arrive to pick them up and as they come out of the airport I see my daughter in full delirium crying and screaming and my wife giving me the death stare. My daughter looked up at me and busted into the biggest smile, she was totally surprised to see me and was suddenly a different kid. We loaded into the car and she saw this life size husky sitting next to her car seat and she was blown away. I told her his name was Jonathan but she said he wasn't. I'm assuming she could tell that a gray and white husky was a lot different than an all white Samoyed. She said "not Jonazin". She then proceeded to lovingly call him "Not Jonazin" for the next two years.

 

[Paesano]

The all-time worst carnival game is the one where you have a machine gun bb gun and have to shoot the entire target out without leaving any hanging chads. It's completely impossible for two reasons: they don't hold enough bb's and the gun shoots way too fast to be able to target accurately enough. In order to win, you basically have to outline the target with bb strikes and cut it out. Not happening.

I won it.

I also won the knock down the furry cat with a baseball game and the bowling ball on rails game.

 

[TasteofUConn]

I like the game where you shoot the water into the clown's mouth and blow up the balloon. I win literally every time. My secret is this:
I always pick the gun all the way on the right side. I take very careful aim prior to the start. I use my left arm as a uni-pod, firmly planting my elbow in the table. I then aim high - most people make the mistake of aiming low, and then it takes a bit to figure out the height. I aim high, and, most of the time, the water stream starts out close to the mouth. Now here's the key part. When you think you're about 1/2 way there, you swivel rapidly to your left and shoot all of the other players with a nice stream of sh-tty carnival water while screaming as loud as you can, "Senhor Testiculo sends his warmest regards." Now, you don't get a prize for this, but believe me when I say you'll feel like you won - every time. But I recommend only using this invaluable trick once per carnival, and preferably only if you can run fairly well.

 

[FartMan69]

I'm still trying to get that Harvard diploma

 

[Phorcys]

The all-time worst carnival game is the one where you have a machine gun bb gun and have to shoot the entire target out without leaving any hanging chads. It's completely impossible for two reasons: they don't hold enough bb's and the gun shoots way too fast to be able to target accurately enough. In order to win, you basically have to outline the target with bb strikes and cut it out. Not happening.

With all due respect, from my experience the BB-machine-gun game is the easiest to win.

The trick to winning is all about learning the idiosyncrasies of your weapon. No gun shoots perfectly straight—some pull left, others right; some up, some down; etc.

The strategy is to first carefully sight the target, and then test the gun’s aim with a short burst or two. Once you have a feel for how the thing shoots, just point it at the person behind the counter.

I haven’t lost yet, and my prizes have included a giant panda, a pink anaconda, and some fluffy beast I have yet to identify.

However, as with TasteofUConn’s approach to the clown/water-balloon game, successfully employing this strategy may require an ability to run.

 

[Kembacity]

I think carnival games are all skewed so you lose obviously. Doesn't mean you cant win, just that it will cost you more to win the item than it would for you to buy it. The claw game however there are people who know how to do it just off experience. Had a friend at my old job who would win more than half the time. He couldn't get any item you wanted, but he could pick the few items in there that would be winnable

 

[SubbaBub]

Worked at an amusement park as a kid and here is all you need to know about carnival games.

1. They are all designed to a certain success rate.

2. Most can be beaten with a combination of strategy and technique. The most famous one is knocking over the cats. Most dudes try to power them over with fastballs. The fringed puppets, make the targets appear larger than they are. It's an accuracy game. If you throw the ball more like you would a dart, it is easier to hit the center of the targer, which is what knocks it over. If they are nailed down, that's cheating.

3. Whatever prize you win, it most likely cost a lot less than you paid to play. Most prizes they give away profit after a single play. So you could in theory win every time and still they make money. The big prizes you have almost no shot at.

It's supposed to be fun, think of it that way. But, if you want to win play any game that pays every run, like the clown water gun game or the golf ball horse race. You are just playing against the field. The park makes it's money on volume.


Bonus tip. The claw machine is controlled by a computer so that the grip is strong enough to grab a prize only every so often, 1 in 20, 1 in 100, etc. It is set by the owner. If you miss the strong pull, you have to wait for it to come around again. Except you don't know exactly which one it will be. It only averages 1 in 20, or however it is set to operate.

 

[Deepster]

Bonus tip. The claw machine is controlled by a computer so that the grip is strong enough to grab a prize only every so often, 1 in 20, 1 in 100, etc. It is set by the owner. If you miss the strong pull, you have to wait for it to come around again. Except you don't know exactly which one it will be. It only averages 1 in 20, or however it is set to operate.

The strength of the claw's grip is set for each pull. You need at least 10-11 psi to grab and lift an average prize. State laws require the machines to give players a chance to win every X pulls. Sometimes it's 1 in 11, 1 in 15, etc. So for the other pulls, the psi simply isn't strong enough to ever grab and lift anything. On that one pull where the psi is high enough, you need to nail it. Of course, the average prize costs less than a dollar so even if you "win" on your first pull, you still "lose".

 

[KingOPancakes]

I've been lucky enough to beat exactly 2 of those games in my life. At Lake Compounce I beat a game where you toss rings onto bottles and won a 4 foot tall TRex. Then at the Big E I threw a softball at a stack of blocks and won an 8 foot stuffed snake. Both were extremely lucky shots and I don't think I'd be able to duplicate either if I had all day and an endless supply of $1s.

 

[CL82]

The all-time worst carnival game is the one where you have a machine gun bb gun and have to shoot the entire target out without leaving any hanging chads. It's completely impossible for two reasons: they don't hold enough bb's and the gun shoots way too fast to be able to target accurately enough. In order to win, you basically have to outline the target with bb strikes and cut it out. Not happening.

I've seen it done multiple times but have seen many more where there is a hanging chad.

 

[Kitaman]

The strength of the claw's grip is set for each pull. You need at least 10-11 psi to grab and lift an average prize. State laws require the machines to give players a chance to win every X pulls. Sometimes it's 1 in 11, 1 in 15, etc. So for the other pulls, the psi simply isn't strong enough to ever grab and lift anything. On that one pull where the psi is high enough, you need to nail it. Of course, the average prize costs less than a dollar so even if you "win" on your first pull, you still "lose".

Growing up in NJ and going to the shore quite often, this is the kind of education I wish they would have taught me somewhere, sometime hell even in the barbershops. Not that I spent a lot of money but having girlfriends on the arm at these parks now make me feel silly playing. May seem trivial but blind man now see!

 

[cw00dson24]

On the Boardwalk in Wildwood, NJ I won $20 from the guy running the game once.

It was the game where you had to toss the softball into the basket. I was walking by and he called me over saying he would give me a free try. I walked over and told him it was rigged and no one can win without a another ball in the basket. He said it wasn't rigged so I bet him $20 that he could not win. I think he was trying to pull a long con and missed on purpose trying to make me bet more money, but he stupidly gave me $20 and I just ran away.

 

[mets1090]

Growing up in NJ and going to the shore quite often, this is the kind of education I wish they would have taught me somewhere, sometime hell even in the barbershops. Not that I spent a lot of money but having girlfriends on the arm at these parks now make me feel silly playing. May seem trivial but blind man now see!

Girls don't want to hear you yammer on about how the claw machine is rigged. They want to see how many dollars you are willing to put in that damn machine and how embarrassed you become when you fail miserably. Just keep your mouth shut and keep jamming dollars in there. This indicates that you are easily whipped, which pleases them.