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"Rigged" games


SonofBaconator
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Bring out your brooms I'm calling Shenanigans!!

I'm determined to one day win the ladder climbing game...I want a rasta banana!

I was sitting outside of Adventure Express 2 years back I think while a couple of nieces rode it 3 or 4 times. The ladder climbing game worker, obviously bored by his lack of customers, started climbing the ladder himself. There were enough people that came thru during this 20-30 minutes that I sat there that it was pretty easy to tell what the ladder game worker was doing that made him successful each time, and what the regular customer was doing causing them to fall each time.

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OK, lets see if I can explain what I saw clearly enough thru text:

As best as I could tell, the general public would pay their $2 (or whatever it costs) then climb the rope lader like you'd climb a normal lader while carrying a 100 pound backpack. Basically they'd put their hands on run 3 (eye level) and both feet on rung 1 (bottom level). They then would move their hands one at a time up to run 4, and then their feet 1 at a time to rung 2. From there they'd move both of their hands, one at a time up to rung 5, and their feet up to rung 3. Due to the sway in the rope ladder, I think this is inherantly the easiest path in the typical person's mind to keep them from tipping over. However, since each person only using 2 rungs as their pivot points, they're in fact not very stable. Its actually the exact opposite of what you'd experience on a stationary ladder like you'd use at home or a job site where you'd go up 1 rung at a time when you were scared of heights or carrying up something heavy..

What I saw a couple of different operators doing at various times thru the course of 2 seasons was they would start w/ their left (or right) hand on rung 3 and the opposite hand on rung 4, their left (or right) foot on rung 1 and their opposite foot on rung 2. Then they'd proceed to move their left hand from rung 3 to rung 5, then their left foot from rung 1 to rung 3, they'd follow that action by moving their opposite hand from rung 4 to rung 6, then their opposite foot from rung 2 to rung 4. By doing this, you always have 3 pivot points on the ladder and if you make the move quickly, you quickly have 4 pivot points to help you balance. I imagine it takes some core strength as well to help balance you out and you also want to keep your hands/feet to the outside of each rung as move up the ladder so that you "spread" the vertical ropes as far apart as possible, giving you more stability on your climb. If it were free, I'd give it a try, but I have no interest in the prizes to spend the money to see if what I was visualizing would hold up in action.

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Why are old pinball games labeled "For Amusement Only"?

This I can answer. You see back in the 1920's people actually gambled on pinball games. It became so bad, that pinball machines were banned in the US. In NYC, pinball was banned until the 1970's. That disclaimer is on the machines so people knew they were not gambling machines.There is a great documentary on this called "Special When Lit."

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I beg the question, how are "games of skill" or carnival games not gambling? Why is there two hoops on the basketball game? The only games I play are the ones "winner everytime" and only play them when the chances of someone in the family winning are high or 100%

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Years ago, I was really good at the quarter toss and milk jug toss at KI. There was a definite strategy to them. Actually back then the prizes weren't just stuffed animals. There were appliances, jackets, key chains etc. For years my kitchen was outfitted with a toaster, blender etc that I won at the milk jug toss. LOL!

The quarter pitch was removed several years ago - and I was upset because I could win it every time. Then the prizes were changed to just stuffed animals on the milk jug toss, (so they could hang them to block high tossing) and the price was raised drastically. So I quit playing.

I could spill the beans on the whole winning strategy (Tossing with a flip of the wrist, ball under your palm - or quarter flat on palm a the base of your middle and ring finger, tossing as high as possible were key) but mostly it took practice and lots of losing until I mastered it.

The only game I play now is, silly enough, bowler roller. I just enjoy doing it and couldn't care less about winning the prize. (They make good pet toys.) However even bowler roller is dissapearing.

I know I always sound like an old cramuddgeon (SP?) however the best game EVER at any park was always Fascination. Very, very, very few Fascination Parlors are left. It's old school and I'm sure most of you don't even know what it is/was. It was terrific fun, and I lost a lot of ride time in parks that had that game!

Shaggy

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Shaggy, on 30 Aug 2013 - 11:46 AM, said:

Years ago, I was really good at the quarter toss and milk jug toss at KI. There was a definite strategy to them. Actually back then the prizes weren't just stuffed animals. There were appliances, jackets, key chains etc. For years my kitchen was outfitted with a toaster, blender etc that I won at the milk jug toss. LOL!

The quarter pitch game at KI in the mid-90s was one of the best games I've ever played from a cost to play vs. prize won value standpoint. The appliances they had as prizes there were NICE. Coffee makers, toaster ovens, blenders - all the good stuff. My dad still has and uses the Black and Decker toaster I won for him nearly 20 years ago, and I still have a blanket that I won there and regularly use when I'm outside.

I remember the first time I saw someone win quarter pitch. It was around 9 PM on a July Saturday in 1995. The player was a gentleman in his late 20s with a very thick Southern accent. He bounced his first quarter off one of the long, thin plastic lights fixed to the ceiling and just missed the plate. He then tossed his second quarter up against the ceiling - just missing the light - and it bounced on the plate several times and stayed on. I was truly amazed. What a genius move!

I came back to KI the following Monday and decided to use the same technique. The first few attempts were close. The eighth attempt was absolutely perfect - quarter hitting the ceiling just before the light, three bounces straight up in the air and on the plate. Simply magical. It was the first time I ever won that game, and the aforementioned toaster was the prize I selected. Man, those were the days!

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The claw machines at Kings Island are all rigged if you look very closely there is a layer of plexiglass between the items and rocks therefor the hook can hardly if ever get a good grasp around the item..

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Claw strength is determined by the payout schedule. You may see someone win something like a small stuffed animal before the payout schedule is hit, but you can pretty well forget it if you're talking one of the electronic items (iPads, iPod Touch, Kindles, etc.) until the machine has hit its targeted money target.

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At least in Ohio, before a game can be operated at a fair or amusement park, the Department of Agriculture has to approve the type of game. They have a list of approved and disapprove games (http://www.agri.ohio.gov/divs/Rides/docs/2009Gamebook.pdf). After reading some of the information it sounds like it comes down to subjectivity of the approving official and I'm pretty sure it's not considered gambling if the Dept of Ag and state get their cut of the pie, if you know what I mean ;)

If I'm not mistaken, each game area and machine has a certificate indicating that the game was inspected and approved by the Dept of Ag somewhere, and probably each of the rides has one somewhere too.

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Why are old pinball games labeled "For Amusement Only"?

This I can answer. You see back in the 1920's people actually gambled on pinball games. It became so bad, that pinball machines were banned in the US. In NYC, pinball was banned until the 1970's. That disclaimer is on the machines so people knew they were not gambling machines.There is a great documentary on this called "Special When Lit."

I love pinball. It's the only game I've ever played in the park.

My first job, at 15, was at a steakhouse in a mall, so we are talking Fine Dining.

On slow days, the manager would give me a quarter to go across the way to rack him up a load of free games on a pinball machine, so he would have something to do in the afternoon.

I would say that the mall environment has ruined the working potential of many a mustached manager.

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The last time I was at Kings Island with a friend we decided to stop by the 80's shop in I Street. We were just shopping around when we noticed the arcade machine in the corner. We shot across the room in a race nearly pummeling each other to get to the Galaga machine....KI would make hand over fist money with a strictly 80's and prior game room...especially with us older folks...and at a quarter a play too! I would spend lots of time there...and quarters...

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  • 2 weeks later...

Why are old pinball games labeled "For Amusement Only"?

This I can answer. You see back in the 1920's people actually gambled on pinball games. It became so bad, that pinball machines were banned in the US. In NYC, pinball was banned until the 1970's. That disclaimer is on the machines so people knew they were not gambling machines.There is a great documentary on this called "Special When Lit."

I remember seeing pictures of the mayor of Chicago going on a "pinball raid" in the 1920s and surveying destroyed machines.

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  • 2 months later...

I don't think they are rigged. My daughter won a giant ape that now resides in her bedroom. It's huge. She won it playing ring toss. It was luck, but I don't feel it is rigged. Until she won, I had thought they were, or I would have directed her to try another game with smaller prizes. Btw the apes name is Bruno. It takes up a good portion of her room.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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