Games

[buchers]

Buchers, how long ago was your church at the park? I am pretty sure that guy who could walk up the ladder with no hands was me seeing as only me and one other person could do it about 2-3 years ago.

It was about 3 or 4 years ago when I worked there with them.

[cewldre]

Buchers, how long ago was your church at the park? I am pretty sure that guy who could walk up the ladder with no hands was me seeing as only me and one other person could do it about 2-3 years ago.

It was about 3 or 4 years ago when I worked there with them.

Then that guy was indeed most likely me. I am, by far, no where near as good at the game as I was then. I am out of practice.

[erniebald57]

You are kidding yourself if you think that even the biggest stuffed animal they give away costs the park much more than my previous estimate. The "profit margin" if you will...is hundreds of percent. There are some other prizes that cost the park a lot more to put on the rack, but they are the ones that are near impossible to win. The prizes are won eventually, but not before dozens of guests have paid for the prize many times over by trying to win it. Games are huge money makers for amusement parks for this exact reason. Are the games fun? sure they are. If they weren't, than nobody would play them. The beauty of park games is that when the guest wins, they are happy, and the park profits handsomely. If the guest loses....they usually at least try again, and the park still profits handsomely.

[WooferBearATL]

Part of playing a game is just that.

Playing.

To many, and I can't say that I understand it, they enjoy playing the game.

One of my lifting buddies goes to Vegas several times a year and to a lot of the Casinos througout the country. I don't understand it, but he enjoys gambling.

[Purplehaze]

I like your friend enjoy the casinos. The games at KI I wont play. Maybe on an occasion I will here and there just for fun.

[The Interpreter]

And to this day, I still don't understand why amusement park games are NOT gambling. Especially now that they are typically five dollars. Skill is involved in SOME of them, yes. But in many, it seems to me at least, there is nothing but pure luck.

By the way, years ago, parks actually hired people for "Guess Your Weight or Age" and trained them to do just that. If the prizes were still valuable compared to what you pay, I would think they would do more training in that area than they nowadays do.

[WooferBearATL]

And to this day, I still don't understand why amusement park games are NOT gambling. Especially now that they are typically five dollars. Skill is involved in SOME of them, yes. But in many, it seems to me at least, there is nothing but pure luck.

By the way, years ago, parks actually hired people for "Guess Your Weight or Age" and trained them to do just that. If the prizes were still valuable compared to what you pay, I would think they would do more training in that area than they nowadays do.

Well, are we seeing a return of actually training folk with Cedar Fair? I've not been to the park yet this year, so I'm not sure.

[raptor]

And to this day, I still don't understand why amusement park games are NOT gambling. Especially now that they are typically five dollars. Skill is involved in SOME of them, yes. But in many, it seems to me at least, there is nothing but pure luck.

By the way, years ago, parks actually hired people for "Guess Your Weight or Age" and trained them to do just that. If the prizes were still valuable compared to what you pay, I would think they would do more training in that area than they nowadays do.

The same reason 321-seat isn't ticket scalping, whether it's scalping is determined by who's doing it not the pratice.

Personally I have nothing against scalping or Gambling games, it's all entertainment.

[Dalefan]

I love the games at Kings Island. I play the arcade games alot. I also play the water games where you have to keep the water on the target to win. i win like everytime i play them. I only play till i win one toy then stop. But i may play something different to see how the other games play as far as hardness goes. I play when i know i am going to my car so i dont have to carry around the animal or toy all day lol. Its a good rest from the rides and stuff.

[marlfox_21]

All that I can remember about the games really are the football throw and the rings on the bottle games. And my memories of these are of associate parties after park hours. I remember getting the football through the hole "target" on several occasions. And I remember the ring on the bottle game being surrounded by associates, all of them with BUCKETS OF RINGS, counting ONE TWO THREE.....NOW!!!!! On "NOW" every associate with a bucket of rings would hurl them at once onto the bottles. ( probably like hundreds if not a thousand rings at once ) And guess what. Not ONE of them landed on a bottle.

[ohhs02highlander]

One of my friends was told to carry around a big stuffed animal and act like he won it. He was to tell people where he won it too, if they asked, so they could go play the game.

we do not tell our associates to walk around acting like they won...the only thing we would have them do is walk around the front of their game in full uniform carrying a prize trying to sell the game. We do not tell them to walk around the park with prizes that would just be wrong, and deceiving and we do not do that

[buchers]

we do not tell our associates to walk around acting like they won...the only thing we would have them do is walk around the front of their game in full uniform carrying a prize trying to sell the game. We do not tell them to walk around the park with prizes that would just be wrong, and deceiving and we do not do that

May not do it anymore but they sure did it before. He was with our church group and I was there when they handed him the sig stuffed animal and told him to walk around the park with it! I remember it clearly because I was hoping he didn't want me to do it cause it was hot that day!! hehe

Oh, and when we worked with our church group we wore tan pants and a white, or blue, shirt. We had no official park uniforms or nametags.

[ohhs02highlander]

we do not tell our associates to walk around acting like they won...the only thing we would have them do is walk around the front of their game in full uniform carrying a prize trying to sell the game. We do not tell them to walk around the park with prizes that would just be wrong, and deceiving and we do not do that

May not do it anymore but they sure did it before. He was with our church group and I was there when they handed him the sig stuffed animal and told him to walk around the park with it! I remember it clearly because I was hoping he didn't want me to do it cause it was hot that day!! hehe

Oh, and when we worked with our church group we wore tan pants and a white, or blue, shirt. We had no official park uniforms or nametags.

uhm well i've been working there for 8 years now and we've never done anything like that

[BoddaH1994]

we do not tell our associates to walk around acting like they won...the only thing we would have them do is walk around the front of their game in full uniform carrying a prize trying to sell the game. We do not tell them to walk around the park with prizes that would just be wrong, and deceiving and we do not do that

May not do it anymore but they sure did it before. He was with our church group and I was there when they handed him the sig stuffed animal and told him to walk around the park with it! I remember it clearly because I was hoping he didn't want me to do it cause it was hot that day!! hehe

Oh, and when we worked with our church group we wore tan pants and a white, or blue, shirt. We had no official park uniforms or nametags.

uhm well i've been working there for 8 years now and we've never done anything like that

I'm not saying that KI does it now... or has ever done it for that matter, but that was a common practice in the past for amusement parks.

[ohhs02highlander]

I'm not saying that KI does it now... or has ever done it for that matter, but that was a common practice in the past for amusement parks.

I have no idea if it's been true in the past but bucher was saying we've done that recently and we in fact have not

[buchers]

I'm not saying that KI does it now... or has ever done it for that matter, but that was a common practice in the past for amusement parks.

I have no idea if it's been true in the past but bucher was saying we've done that recently and we in fact have not

I said it was done 3 or 4 years ago when I worked there with my church group. You don't have to believe it, and can deny it all you want, but I know what happened that day.

[upstop]

And to this day, I still don't understand why amusement park games are NOT gambling. Especially now that they are typically five dollars. Skill is involved in SOME of them, yes. But in many, it seems to me at least, there is nothing but pure luck.

The main reason they are not considered gambling, is that the pay off "stuffed animal" is not taxable, if cash is being exchanged for cash, it is considered gambling. Also, in order to collect a profit, they would need to have state licensing in order to operate the games. I'm sure KI pays a hefty fee for licensing the games and that the state occasionally monitors the games for fairness and to ensure that the customer isn't scammed. In other words, if the customer is ever paid in cash or promised cash as a prize to play it is a no no, and they check to make sure that none of the games are rigged to win or lose.

[The Interpreter]

A prize need not be cash to be taxable, as many game show winners of cars and the like have found out to their sorrow. The fair market value of the item is your winnings...what it would sell for in the open market to a willing buyer who didn't have to buy it.

It's most likely there is no income to the players in these transactions as the prize isn't worth the cost to play...(gambling losses are tax deductible, but only to the extent of gambling gains).

[LongLiveTheSmurfRide]

One summer I thought I was the master of that "small rings around the glass bottles" game. I went to PKI and paid for one bunch of rings and won a huge stuffed neon lizard. Then later in the summer I went to Cedar Point and once again got another bunch of rings and won like on the 2nd throw and got a huge Curious George (Like 4 ft tall).

On the way back to the car with George a guy offered me $30 for him. I probably should have taken him up on it, but my brother was about to have my first nephew and they were decking his room out in Curious George stuff so I figured this was a one-of-a-kind addition and only cost me a couple bucks.

Anyway, I thought I was the master after those 2 times, but now I never win that game. Just a lucky summer I suppose.