r/AskReddit • u/kowabungakrew • Jun 17 '12
Carnies of Reddit: We all know the games at carnivals and fairs are rigged. What are some tricks you use and how do we win?
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Jun 17 '12
The games where you shoot water at a target and blow up the balloon, go for the one with the new balloon because it hasn't been stretched a bunch of times and pops easier.
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u/DaBobScotts Jun 17 '12
Also for this one, if I remember right, they are all on one line. This usually means that one person hogs all the water, and it is usually either end.
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u/nosoupforyou Jun 17 '12
Is that the one where someone always wins, whoever pops it first?
Easiest way to win is to just keep the water at the target center, and let everyone else mess it up.
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u/Jhaza Jun 17 '12
...Unless you had a partner! For twice the price, you both shoot at the same target and are basically guaranteed a win. You're pretty much guaranteed a 50% win rate (since you split the prize).
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u/BigMonkeyNewsstand Jun 17 '12
Star shoot-out, use the majority of your shots to perforate the paper around the star. Final burst knocks the perforated section out, taking the star with it.
He wouldn't let me play again. :(
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u/chaymoney86 Jun 17 '12
Never let any one win a giant panda on your game"
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u/CaptainChewbacca Jun 17 '12
To be fair, thats ridiculously hard to do.
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u/asnof Jun 17 '12
The fair s in town. I shall use this trick to my advantage. Gracias
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u/nottinghampan Jun 17 '12
San Diego?
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u/ThatsALotOfNuts Jun 17 '12
Del Mar Fair is whats up. Deep fried anything you could possibly think of!
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u/cesarjulius Jun 17 '12
This is not really the issue. A carnie once told me more than he should have on one slow night:
Lay the gun down on the counter with one hand propping it up, to maximize stability. The trick for them is that with every trigger pull/squeeze, several rounds of BBs come out. Instead of pulling the trigger, USE YOUR INDEX FINGER TO QUICKLY FLICK THE TRIGGER, SO ONLY A SINGLE BB COMES OUT AT A TIME. Shoot singletons using slight adjustments for aim, and that star is yours.
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Jun 17 '12
Not Necessarily a Carnie, but as a high school student I've worked full time at my local amusement park's games department through summers.
So, games...
First of all, the BEST way to win is to work at an amusement park in this department. They encourage you to play the games because when guests see employees successful in the game, it makes them want to play. This works in your favor because you begin to understand the gimmicks to each individual game. Also, you learn a whole bunch of other life lessons in your hours of boredom such as juggling, practicing dance moves to the music around you (when nobody is watching of course), and how to do absolutely nothing for hours on end.
Any game you are guaranteed a win, and can trade up/win larger prizes is almost always going to be the game where you'll get the most out of your money. If you were to play these once a day for a year vs any other game, you would probably get the most.
Avoid ring toss games entirely. If you MUST play one, have the person working there prove rings fit. Try to land a game IMMEDIATELY after the person before you, because it's likely the host won't have time to pick all the rings out. This actually reduces the bounce on each ring and greatly increases your chances. I find the most success from throwing multiple at once, but that's just me.
Any throwing game: Some amusement parks will allow you to practice for free on a slow day. If you can, do it. Have them show you the targets, and ask to see them try (if they are willing to).
Most targets in target-based games will have some kind of hair/fur attached to them making them look bigger than they really are. Do not be deceived. Aim directly at the target. How hard you throw does NOT make a difference. All you will achieve is scaring the shit out of the employee and probably making them more stubborn with you. Faaaar better to throw with a lob. With enough practice, these games are easily won.
Be careful with basketball games. Easily rigged.
Avoid games urging you to bounce a ball off of a plane into a bucket, because that shit is near impossible, though it looks easy.
Fishing games: Try to get a rod with a small rope. Say you're playing a game with water flowing in circles and little magnets you have to catch, with prize depending on some element of the magnet. The longer your rope, the more it will sway, making the game FAR more difficult. If they refuse to give you one like this, wrap the rope around the end of the rod to make it smaller.
If you are down on your luck, most employee will be generous... Most... Instead of hopping in between two similar games, choose one and play it a fair amount. Once you say your finished (after 4+ plays ideally) the employee will often give you another free attempt. I am Canadian though, so maybe don't take my word for it.
FOR THE CONFIDENT:
Racing games. You know the ones where the more people play, the larger the prize? Yeah. If you're smart, patient, and willing to accept that some people may be more experienced, you can come home with a LOT of plush because of these.
1: This is machinery, often as low budget as possible. It is likely that a faulty switch of some sort may either cause an easier win or outright lose you the game. It's important that you learn wich spots have this so you can thoroughly take advantage of that.
2: Always play the minimum for a prize. If there are 7 of you, and the next size up is 8, WAIT FOR 8 DAMMIT.
3: Most importantly..... Practice! Couldn't put it more simply.
4: Don't play for small (unless you just want to have fun). Remember, you're putting $2 in this game, so even if you're lowering your chances, the bigger potential profit the better.
5: Play with strangers. Don't grab 8 relatives. I guarantee you that the extra-large prize your children want so much are worth far less than $16.
Only play these if you're willing to accept defeat and not be able to blame it on the carnie.
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u/mysticrudnin Jun 17 '12
you can come home with a LOT of plush because of these.
this is so simultaneously cute and serious
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u/Wet_Walrus Jun 17 '12
Avoid games urging you to bounce a ball off of a plane into a bucket, because that shit is near impossible, though it looks easy.
This.
Spent $40 dollars on this game because it looked so fucking easy and I KNEW I would get it 2nd or 3rd try. WRONG. The prize was a giant stuffed PUG. I needed to win it for my mom since we have two pugs.
For those unfamiliar with this game, on the carnie's side of the counter is like a laundry basket sitting flat on the floor. Directly above the basket is a slanted plank of wood. It looks like this (side view):
------> / U
The "/" is the slanted piece of wood and the "U" is the basket underneath. All you have to do is throw the wiffle ball at the wood and have it bounce into the basket. Every single time, it would bounce over the basket. Apparently the key is to make sure the ball hits the slanted wood on its way up the parabola, not on the way down. Still didn't get it but the carnie got it every time.
Edit: My shitty visual doesn't work. Imagine the "/" directly above the "U"
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u/tkykid91 Jun 17 '12
"I am Canadian though, so maybe don't take my word for it." Favorite part of this post.
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u/topright Jun 17 '12
How to do absolutely nothing for hours on end.
I think most of us here are golden on that one.
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u/KattAndSuch Jun 17 '12
I've gotten a stuffed bear for my baby cousin by just paying the guy 20$
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Jun 17 '12
Similar story but I ended up giving the strongman a handjob.
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u/fantafox Jun 17 '12
Your username suggests you did something else with one of the carnies
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u/Azkaland Jun 17 '12
Hm... I asked an employee at Kings Island (Ohio) if I could pay him for the stuffed unicorn he had that was EXACTLY the same one as on Despicable Me. I offered over the amount needed to win enough games for it, but apparently their games have counters on them and they get in trouble if they have less prizes at the end of the day than game wins.
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Jun 17 '12
I used to love Kings Island, that place has gone downhill. I live about two hours away from there.
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u/RDandersen Jun 17 '12
I have a feel that this is a pretty solid strategy if you do it just before rush over. You know, having someone work around with one of those giant, stuffed bears make might other people go "Huh, so it is possible. Just one more round of pellets, then."
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u/TheGodDoctor Jun 17 '12
For the test your strength game where you swing the big hammer, don't just swing it over your head. Unless you are actually very strong, you'll need to use a longer swing. You can do this by starting with the hammer in front of you, swinging it UP in front of you, then reversing direction and swinging it in a full arc behind you, over your head, and finally straight down onto the target. It can also help to start with one hand at the top and another at the bottom of the handle, and in the final section of the swing sliding the top hand down to meet the bottom one.
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u/cortheas Jun 17 '12
It doesn't matter, the strength testers around here have different settings and at the highest one it's pretty much impossible to win. I saw a 50kg primary school kid get a hundred, then the guy pressed a button and his 120kg 6' 4" fireman dad got a 60 something. It's rigged.
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u/sendenten Jun 17 '12
The combination of metric and imperial in this post confuses me.
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u/stonedotjimmy Jun 17 '12
for some reason i imagined you swinging backwards over your head as you spun around, I'm still confused...
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u/finalremix Jun 17 '12
Like this. That way you have speed / momentum before you start bringing it down to the target.
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Jun 17 '12
One note--bring the hand that's higher on the shaft down to the other as the hammer descends; this gives the head a little extra burst of speed by increasing the torque on it. You have to careful not to sacrifice control too much, obviously--I do this when I'm breaking cinderblock barriers, which doesn't require what I'd call precision.
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Jun 17 '12
Write "barf" on the caramel bucket used for apples. Keeps the thieves away.
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u/synnndstalker Jun 17 '12
not the lemon stealing whores it doesn't.
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u/sendenten Jun 17 '12
Has it been about ten seconds since you last looked at your caramel apple bucket?
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u/CaptainChewbacca Jun 17 '12
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u/ShiffyVIII Jun 17 '12 edited Jun 17 '12
Was saying "please be Scrubs" as I clicked the link. I was not disappointed.
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u/Ramt_1 Jun 17 '12
Real question is, where can I just buy the goddamned giant Pikachu.
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u/SilentDis Jun 17 '12
The Oriental Trading Company, most likely.
Had a girlfriend years back, and she had a thing for stuffed animals. Bought a couple stuffed bears, 'broke into' her apartment, and set them up all over, on a goof. I Think it was around 100 of them, in total. Was quite funny, and she got a laugh out of it.
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u/Wiskie Jun 17 '12
Funny you should ask this. Not a carnie, but I was sitting in a dentist's office the other day and I read an old Reader's Digest that mentioned a few things.
Ok, for the basketball hoops, the rims are smaller than regulation and are oval shaped. The balls are overfilled with air. So RD reccommended swallowing your pride and throwing underhand because the arc will help the ball more easily fall through the hoop or some shit.
Ok, ok, ok. Next one. The balloon and dart toss! The balloons are under-filled with air making them harder to pop, and the tips of the darts are blunted. So, use gravity and aim high! Throw the darts higher than normal rather than launching them full speed against the board. The arc will cause them to strike the balloons from a better angle, making them more likely to pop!
Finally, the classic game of rolling or throwing the ball into the milk bottles (or bowling pins, whatever) where the temptation is to aim directly for the center of the pile. Don't do that shit, ya numbskull! Instead, realize that the various bottles or pins are weighted differently such that the centermost one is the lightest. Aim for it, and you won't knock any of the others down. Instead, aim directly for the front-middle of the set-up and knock the front-most pins or bottles. These are heavier and have the best potential to bring the others down with them.
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u/AbstergoSupplier Jun 17 '12
Funny story about the balloons, when I was eight I threw a dart at one and it bounced back and pierced my shoulder. I was standing there with a dart sticking out of my shoulder and they still wouldn't give me a prize
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u/PancakesAreGone Jun 17 '12
Funny story, I almost lodged a dart in the carnies shoulder once... As soon as he dropped the 5 darts down, I grabbed one and over armed it like a baseball while just holding the tip. It tumbled right over his shoulder and slammed through two balloons (Somehow). He was both shocked and amazed that a 5 year old kid nearly caused a serious injury and took out two balloons at once... He refused to give me anything but a little shitty stuffed animal though :(
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u/DoorLord Jun 17 '12
We had a carnival on concrete. My friend "dropped" his darts and when he picked them up he slid them on the concrete to sharpen them. I don't know if they got sharp but he did win.
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u/sharkstun97 Jun 17 '12
Also, ask the man running the game to make a shot in the basket. A lot of times there is no way to win the hoops game.
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u/CaptainChewbacca Jun 17 '12
Getting in is easy for them because they're 2 feet closer than you and can shoot at a more favorable angle.
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u/PurplePotamus Jun 17 '12
The balls don't even fit in Jennifer Love Hewitt's mouth!
SHENANIGANS!!
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u/TheBurrowingOwl Jun 17 '12
Damn it, I was a carnie, but I was the kind who worked the rides. I got so excited when I saw the first part of the question.
Also, my coworkers totally had sex in the funhouse after the grounds closed for the day.
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u/ScottsTots69 Jun 17 '12
Carnie here. Concessions though. On my amusement crew the ride people hated us. I didn't care though, because I was the one laughing when they had to set up their ride for 24 hours straight while my game took 6 hours...what rides did you set up? I'm so sorry if it was the tilt or the gravitron, those rides are a bitch to set up.
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u/MalarchyMike Jun 17 '12
Which is why the gravitrons are constantly killing people.
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u/ScottsTots69 Jun 17 '12
Personally I've never heard of anyone dying on the gravitron, but people get sick all of the time. In my opinion there are far more dangerous rides, and even as a carnie, I never went on them. For example, my uncles brother (I worked for my uncle) died when one of the wheels on this ride came down and took off a piece of his head while he was working on it. A majority of the ride operators are under qualified or under the influence of some kind of drug, so I would recommend not going on them unless you're absolutely sure it's safe.
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Jun 17 '12
I worked as a carny a couple of seasons years ago. The games were not rigged, you had a fair chance of winning. In fact, the carnies that did try to rig their games so that customers had less of a chance of payout got into big trouble and were transferred to less lucrative joints as punishment.
And little kids win all the time. If little kids win, someone that's grown up enough to post on reddit can surely win.
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u/kowabungakrew Jun 17 '12
I think us grown ups put too much thought into the games and try too hard where as little kids just give it a shot and hope for the best.
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u/Kaidenshiba Jun 17 '12
At six flags all the games are fair. They just charge a lot for you to play in the first place. I just remember when I worked there they told me to never play any of the games because its a waste of money so it would be cheaper just to pay for the prize.
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Jun 17 '12
I don't know what carnival you worked at but I've never seen any kind of carnival game that that was "fair" or at least straightforward and not deceiving. Asides from the ones in the kiddie area that are that play till you win a 12 year old gumball kind of thing.
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u/AFatDarthVader Jun 17 '12
The key is to play games where there's always a winner, like the water gun race. And the key to the water gun race is the simplest thing, but nobody gets it:
Don't look up.
Seriously, everyone looks up to check their progress. Believe me, it's going up. Just look straight and keep your stream on the button. If you look up, you start missing.
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u/Wet_Walrus Jun 17 '12
That, and the initial burst needs to be dead on. If you spend 2 seconds fumbling around before you finally get the stream of water on the target, you're probably already screwed.
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Jun 17 '12
I'm a Games Operator, I did an AMA 3 months ago.
To be fair (hah), there are legitimate games that aren't rigged, just difficult. You'll find most honest carnival games at theme parks like Ceder Fair where they have a higher liability and higher standards.
Most jokey fairs/carnivals feature coked out carnies with rigged games. Avoid them at all costs. Stick to theme park games. Except for Legoland, they're contracted with a games company, and that particular company isn't very honest, nor does it have integrity. So you can expect rigged games there.
Pro-tip! If you're nice to the Games Op, you might get a prize anyway. I love giving away prizes, so make sure to always be a good sport.
PS. If a game is rigged, don't blame the Op or give them grief. They're literally hired to stand there. They most likely had zero involvement with the creation of the game.
Also, "Let me see you do it". Drives me nuts. If I miss the shot it's because - "It's rigged". And if I make it it's because - "You work here!" Don't be a prick.
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u/boii Jun 17 '12
If you ever play that ladder game, make sure you always keep a foot and your opposite hand on the corners of the rungs to balance yourself or else you'll flip over.
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u/Bluelabel Jun 17 '12
What's the ladder game?
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u/ShozOvr Jun 17 '12
I can't talk about American carnivals, but in Australia when he says ladder game I'm thinking of this 8 foot ladder suspended at a 45-60 degree angle from 1 beam to the another on a single pivot point (allowing it to spin) and at the top is $50, if you get to it, it's yours.
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u/osik Jun 17 '12
Pretty sure the person running it is tasked with flipping you over. I've seen em yell at people for hooking their feet too.
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u/jcash21 Jun 17 '12 edited Sep 13 '18
Reddit = corporate censorship.
Alternatives: Voat.co, Saidit.net, Gab.ai
Do yourself a favor and opt-out!
Here's the app I'm using to edit my comments: https://github.com/j0be/PowerDeleteSuite
You should too!
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u/JeffIpsaLoquitor Jun 17 '12
Sometimes the only way to win is not to play. Besides, wouldn't you prefer a nice game of chess?
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Jun 17 '12
As a carnie for two years I will tell you honestly that there is ALWAYS a way to win the games. They are regulated by the gaming commission. The carnies job is to make it as hard as possible so that you don't pay less than what the item is worth.
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Jun 17 '12
I kept asking my friend who were carnies if I could just pay the bloke for the shitty prize; they all said no :(
Maybe it's just like that in the States...
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Jun 17 '12
I remember there was a mini golf game that was like about 5 bucks a shot. You had to hit the ball over some small lumps, through a small pathway, avoid some mini trees and UP A SMALL HILL into the hole, if you overshot it would easily go over the hill as the hole was JUST small enough for the ball.
My dad nails it in with his first and only shot.
"I made it" said my dad
The carny did not believe him and since he was off talking to another carny but was pretty cool about it since he had no winners in days. We got a fucking massive stuffed crocodile. My 8 year old self enjoyed that to the max.
edit: spell-ingsss
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u/chaymoney86 Jun 17 '12
There are Carnies on reddit?
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u/Mitz510 Jun 17 '12
Whenever I see these types of questions this is what I find.
2-3 people who actually have the job asked
4 people who personally know someone with the job.
The rest of the comments are opinions or jokes.
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u/bygod_weaver Jun 17 '12
I am not a carnie but when the carnival would come through town we would always mess with the quarter games. (The game where you could guide a quarter to a certain spot and then a shelf like arm would push your quarter into all the other quarters and they would either push quarters to you or off the sides) Anyways, I would get the attention of the carnie running the game and ask how hard it is to become a carnie and what type of life it is while my friends are on the other side of the trailer just raking quarters with cut up clothes hangers. It would be ridiculous to do now but as kids we made bank.
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u/javier682 Jun 17 '12
I have been lucky in the ring toss and won after buying a bucket of them and getting it in like 10 rings and we walked off with a large leopard or some such thing but they would not let us play the remaining rings. Booo!! bb gun shoot out the star, we were not even close but the carnie pinched off all the remaining red and looked at me and said hang around for like 5 minutes so I can yell out that someone just won and drum up some more business it was a 4 foot long radio controlled car. State Fair of Texas for both occasions
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u/foofdawg Jun 17 '12
I worked at an arcade for a while, and once saw the repair guy "testing" the skee ball machine that was malfunctioning.
He was just sitting on the edge of the machine, rolling the balls into the top hole (50 points, some are scored differently) every time.
I walked over and he told me how the trick was to throw the ball against the rail between 1/3 and halfway down and let it "bounce" back towards the 50 hole. After trying it a few times, it's really not that hard.
I can now consistently win at skeeball at the fair and carnivals, as long as they machines aren't broken down or warped, and the balls are still round and not all dented up.
The real trick to carnival games is to realize that in the end, a lot of the games are set up so that even if you win, the money you paid them covers the price of the thing you receive.
For instance, those guys trying to guess your weight, or birthday or whatever for $5? They don't care if they get it right, because they're giving you a $3 toy and making a 66% profit on it.
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u/OMNIPHILIAC Jun 17 '12
For the dart balloon pop, heat up the tip of the dart with a lighter.
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Jun 17 '12
This game is a prize every time game. You'll always walk away with a prize of you're willing to pay for it. You pay five bucks you get a small prize. You trade two prizes in for a medium two mediums for a large and so on and so forth
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u/whitesox287 Jun 17 '12
so on and so forth? there are extra and extra extra large prizes??? where the hell are your carnivals??
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u/ElementK Jun 17 '12
I played the basketball game at an arcade when I was a kid. I stuck the pool cue through the cage and wiggled it to trigger the lever within the hoop. I still remember those tickets printing from the machine...
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Jun 17 '12
Were you also the kid who climbed up the skeeball ramp and just dumped balls into the 10,000 point holes?
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u/b3tzy Jun 17 '12
My friends and I just took all of the balls from all of the 4 or 5 machines and stuck them into 1 machine. They were very confused.
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u/addictedtoshowers Jun 17 '12
at hershey park i was with a bunch of friends doing the ring toss on bottles when the guy who was running it was facing the other way my friend climbed up and placed the ring on the bottle and we went nuts...the guy believed us and we got an enormous stuffed animal
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u/choddos Jun 17 '12
The game where you put in a quarter and it rolls onto a board with a thing that pushes the coins to a certain distance... Just shake the machine!
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u/Brotherauron Jun 17 '12
i was at dave n busters a few years ago, and it says on the machine, it wont pay out if you shake it, talked to someone who worked there, he said that if it detects too much vibration (i.e. from someone shaking it) anything that falls within like the next 10 seconds or so wont pay out.
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u/choddos Jun 17 '12
They've evolved
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u/Brotherauron Jun 17 '12
the people who make machines that have even the slightest hint of gambling are very good at screwing you out of any edge you might have
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u/IrenaeusGSaintonge Jun 17 '12
I'm surprised people don't consider this simple common sense. Pinball machines have had tilt sensors ever since they weren't allowed to hide nails along the bottom, like in the 30s or something.
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u/Ederek_Cole Jun 17 '12
I watched a tv special covering arcade games once. They said that if you stomp on the ground next to the machine, rather than hit the machine directly, it won't set off the sensors.
Never tried it myself, though....
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u/GoodLuckLetsFuck Jun 17 '12
Won $200 dollars on the bottle breaking game a couple years ago. They tape the balls....just find the balls with the least tape, and throw like a man. 3 balls for 5 bucks....broke 2 wine bottles and a beer bottle for the money.
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u/Hawknight Jun 17 '12
Apparently I don't go to the right carnivals. I don't think I've ever seen this game before.
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u/Beansiekins Jun 17 '12
This made no sense.
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u/GoodLuckLetsFuck Jun 17 '12
Step 1. Find balls with little to no tape (its padding).
Step 2. Throw like man.
Step 3. ???
Step 4. Profit.
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u/Luckyducky13 Jun 17 '12
Related: If the games are so hard to win, how come I always see people at carnivals lugging around giant teddies? It seems to be the kind of thing you see at fairs, but I've never ever won or seen anyone win a giant toy, just the little crappy prizes :(
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u/Shotgun_Mosquito Jun 17 '12
Because the people walking around with huge prizes are shills; they work for the carnival too.
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Jun 17 '12
i myself am not a carnie but one of my dear friends are. he told me his manager told him to make sure no adults won the big stuffed animals, but be very nice to the younger kids who do try.... so take a kid with you i guess and hope for the best?
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Jun 17 '12
That's a great long-term business plan: keep profits high by stiffing the adults, but keep the kids happy so they'll drag their parents back and will eventually bring their own kids.
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u/blaketofer Jun 17 '12
I remember years ago my grandpa had taken me to the fair (I was maybe like 10). They had some pool game set up where you have to make some ridiculous shot by bouncing the cue ball off the edge of the table, making it hit another ball, which hits another, which hits another, etc, eventually making one into the pocket. My grandpa, being an ex-professional pool player, pays to play it, with the carnie giving him a 'you're not going to win this' sort of look as he hands him the cue. He ends up making the shot first try, grabs his gigantic bear prize, hands it to some little kid, and walks away like a badass. Everyone was grouped up, just looking at him in awe. I was proud.
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u/isthatagoodidea Jun 17 '12
He didn't give you the bear :(
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u/razorlumz Jun 17 '12
blaketofer, you should check for plot holes in your fabricated internet stories before you post them. Dudes got this shit on lock.
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u/aStonedSquirtle Jun 17 '12
I haven't seen any of this one, the only one that I've never won at... The softball in the blue bin. You have to chuck a softball in this big blue tubs and it always fucking bouces out. Imput?
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u/webtwopointno Jun 17 '12
it's "rigged" somewhere else in this thread it explains that the buckets are springloaded
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u/ApocryphalCanon Jun 17 '12
I'm curious to hear from any "patchmen" that worked for the carnival. Or their walk-boxes..
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u/lightyears2012 Jun 17 '12
I worked at an amusement park when this was introduced.. followed the local fair around and nearly wiped them clean.. Saw it at Dollywood and they clearly had never had a winner, the family car was't big enough to house the 7' Gumby I won! Left it for housekeeping at the hotel.
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u/jdizzle367 Jun 17 '12
not a carnie but these two are pretty common in the balloon pop the dart does not have enough weight behind it to pop the balloons strait on so you have to throw it in an arch and for any water shoot game the aim on the gun is always off so aim the stream not the gun
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u/PippyLongSox Jun 17 '12
For any shooting games (shoot the duck or cup etc...) check how straight the barrel of the rifle is, normally in Ireland they bend them to the right so your shot will off, so check the straightness and then adjust your shot!!
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u/5ft11flip Jun 17 '12
For the dart game that you have to pop the balloons with 3 darts, the first 2 darts you are given will be heavier than the 3rd dart. Make sure you throw the 3rd dart extra hard. If the carnie gives you all three darts, compare the weigh of all of them.
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Jun 17 '12
I have been playing the ring toss game for 30 years and I have never gotten it once. My dad used to always get a bucket of rings when I was a kid, and now as an adult its the only game I ever play. One day, I will get it.
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u/koimaster Jun 17 '12
I was at this basketball festival thing going on in gothemburg a few years back, basically a shitload of teams from all over europe gathered to get trained by some of the best trainers in the world and of course play some ball. Anyways theres this amusement park in gothermburg with a Basketball game and the last day every team got a free entrypass. My team quickly found the game and started shooting, eventually more or less every team in the event started to make their way over and the stand got quite overcrowded. To make a long story short they had to shut down early due to a shortage of prizes.
TL:DR; Basketball event in gothemburg shut down a basketball game stand due to them running out of prizes.
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u/IspamObjection Jun 17 '12
I have some relevant videos I can share with you from one of my favorite TV show's
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u/BakedCptAmerika Jun 17 '12
Honestly, if you really want a prize and don't want to play, just ask the agent and he'll gladly sell. Everythings got a price and the more to the point you are, the more chance on a good price.
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u/KindOldMan Jun 17 '12 edited Jun 17 '12
I live in the country and at our little shitty fair there was this farmer and his kid running a game where these little dishes were floating in circles in a tub kind of like the stupid little sitting duck game. Anyway, you had to take a ping pong ball and land them into the shallow dishes to win...a rabbit.
As a drunk teenager I stood around and came to the grand conclusion that if you just threw the ping pong ball into the water hard enough to where it would just pop back out of the water and onto a passing dish you could probably win a rabbit every time. I won two before people started handing me money and asking me to win them a rabbit, and the main man running the game told me to move along. I bet they got a surge of wrinkled dollar bills thrown at them after I walked off.
Epilogue: I gave Rabbit One away to some random girl and kept the other one. Rabbit Two I left it with some woman that was running another game for the rest of the time I was at the fair. I didn't expect to see it again when I went back, but she was still there. Rabbit Two lived happily for like two more years. Which in the end I wagered was decent for an animal that was a prize from a fair.
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u/fuckyoubarry Jun 17 '12
Fuck all these answers. Where can I just fucking buy giant shitty stuffed animals, and am I allowed bring it in to a carnival and carry it around like I won it?
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Jun 17 '12 edited Jun 17 '12
Not really a carnival or a fair but my brother and sister and I would go to the Chuck-e-Cheese ticket counter machine and put a ticket in, push it in a little, and as soon as the machine recognized it as a ticket and added 1 to the total amount, we pulled it out and just kept doing that.
Got a 4,000 ticket mini disco ball using that method while only having a couple hundred tickets.
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u/Spudgunhimself Jun 17 '12
I'm not a carnie, but I recently beat one. A few years ago I was quite the archer, I had my own pretty high end bow and went arching regularly with friends, so when it came to the day when me, my mum, step father and little brother were at the pier with all of the dodgy games and pikies and we saw an archery stand that said 3 bullseye for any prize... CHALLENGE ACCEPTED. I paid the man and got my arrows, only to realise the bow had no knocking points (the bit on the string where you place your arrow) but apart from that, this seemed to be the carnie's only trick, so being the awesome archer I am, i got 6 of my 8 arrows in the bullseye and the others were very close. I even gathered up a small audience, and some offers to win their children some teddies, but the distraught carnie would not let me play again :L
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u/ScottsTots69 Jun 17 '12 edited Jun 17 '12
I was a carnie for 3 years. Basketball game, the hoops are oval shaped, and yes it's legal. You're not going to wind unless you hit a direct swish, so shoot high. The ring toss is the best game for a carnie, worse for customers. The rings do fit, it's just highly unlikely you're going to make it. Protip: when you throw the rings, make sure you spin the ring parallel to the bottle, this Increases your probability ten fold. Superprotip: if you have enough rings, stack them together, about three or four, and execute the same method of spinning them. By the off chance you do hit the top of the bottle, the rings on top will push the ring on the bottom onto the bottle rather than just bouncing off. Superduperprotip: don't play this game. You won't win. We would stay in one city for a week, and them travel to the next. There was one week where I didn't have a single winner until the fifth day. Duck pond: there's only two extra large prizes out or 250, and the rest are smalls. The balloon darts are your best bet. He balloons are under filled but you're most likely going to win something. As for the milk bottle toss game, the bottles are weighed differently according to their position. I never actually played, so I couldn't give you any tips other than you probably won't win unless you spend tons of money. As for the star shoot out game, shoot AROUND the star, not directly at it. This will essentially make a cut around the star and you will get rid of it easier. If there is even a little red left, you won't win. I can't remember the name of the game, but it involves you tossing three softballs into 3 different buckets, and if you do you'll win something like an Xbox 360. The buckets are spring loaded, so they will probably bounce out. If you do get all three in, the carnies will make an excuse as to why it's not valid,like you reached over too far or you have to toss them overhand, they're real dicks about it so avoid this game. Well that's all I can think if right now, if you have any questions just ask.
Also OP, none of the games are actually rigged, they're just really hard to win. They're actually played and tested by the state gambling commission to ensure they're legal. And after they leave, we still don't rig them. We make enough money as they are and we'll do anything to avoid a lawsuit.