Rip-off on the midway?
Dear Mark,
Your column Do two-year-olds gamble? You bet they do! was
terrific. But 25¢ at the local supermarket for an egg
with a cheap toy inside is nothing compared to the amount
I spend on my grandchildren on the midway. Last summer I
must have spent more than $40 at one carnival trying to
knock down two coke bottles with a softball. I got nothing,
I mean nothing. Talk about games being rigged. Harold C.
Not all games, Harold, are rigged, or all carnival workers
crooked; but all "honest" games are designed to
favor the game operator. Like the casino, that's how they
make their money. Just because you lost doesn't mean you
were swindled.
There
are three basic types of games that can be found on the
midway. A skill game, a flat game and a game of chance.
Two of the three are illegal. Only a game of skill, in which
you have the ability through human proficiency to control
the final outcome, is legal at a carnival.
A
flat is a game where you have no chance of winning no matter
how dexterous you are. Harold, you could have been a past
singles champion on the PBA tour and you still couldn't
knock those bottles over. The game is surreptitiously controlled
by the game operator-which may have occurred at the carnival
you attended.
Chance games involve no control over the final outcome. A chance game is also illegal because it's gambling, which, without a gaming license, is prohibited in all states.
Remember the gambling formula, Harold? Courts have found
that every gambling apparatus must consist of three components:
consideration, chance and prize. You pay something of value
(consideration) to play; you receive something of value
(prize), usually more than the amount bet; and the outcome
depends on chance. Because leveling coke bottles should
be based solely on skill, not chance, this is what separates
it from a gambling device.
Coke Roll, the game you mentioned in your question, consists
of two coke bottles set up on a platform five feet away.
The object is to roll the ball down the platform and knock
both standing coke bottles over with one ball. Note, Harold,
that the ball you were given is not a regulation softball
but one that is much lighter in weight. Without defying
the law of physics, the only way you could have won is to
hit both bottles directly in the center at the same time.
Because there is no easy way for an unsuspecting mark to
detect if the game was rigged, my best guess is that you
were playing a flat game and the operator gaffed the challenge.
Gaffing is to fix, cheat or rig a game by using misdirection,
sleight of hand or any secret cheating device.
Coke Roll can be gaffed by a deceptive carny simply by off-setting
one of the coke bottles. This moves the center of the bottles
off to one side, making the second bottle impossible to
hit with an underweight softball. By hitting only one bottle,
that bottle will absorb most of the ball's energy, leaving
nothing left to knock down bottle two.
Consequently, bye-bye $40.
A dear friend of mine, blessed with genetics that make her
look 20 years younger than she truly is, loves to beat the
midway cadre out of prizes because they can never guess
her age. But does she truly win? She gives the barker a
dollar and he tries to guess her birth date. If he wins
he keeps her dollar; and if he loses, he keeps her dollar
and gives her a prize worth 25¢. Honest? Yes! Highway
robbery? Yes!
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