Rip-off on the midway?
11 February 2000
By Mark Pilarski
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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