Some people used these rigged machines to wash money from criminal activities…
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What’s the story about why they’re so much more prevalent in Japan, anyway? Presumably it’s because people keep playing them, and some of them definitely have cooler swag – so, is it just a feedback loop that got away?
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yeah, I thought this was baseline knowledge. If you play one of these, and you’re older than say 10, you should expect to lose but be super happy if you do win.
FWIW, literal decades ago, I remember playing one of these and walking out with a garbage bag full of cheap stuffed animals I then dumped all over my girlfriend at the time’s bed. There’s no way the setting, if it existed then, was on because I won almost every time, almost clearing the machine out. It was a good play - we’ve been married over 30 years and I credit those 25 cent stuffed animals for doing their part since my wife’s told the story to people numerous times.
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Ha, what a nice story!
Yeah as a kid i NEVER played them because I never had money. So if I did have some I would go and buy something, not the chance to grab something. Or on a rare occasion play a video game. But at least you got a couple minutes of a video game.
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My dad bought a slot machine and discovered this. Then he realized that cruise ships have different rules, since they are in international waters, and they intentionally make the slot machines near the hallways pay out just as the show each night is finishing up. People walk out of the show, see other people winning, and go inside and gamble on machines that do not have good odds.
The last cruise we went on he made over $3,000 by going to these machines just as the shows were about to let out.
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It was widely ‘known’ in my local pub, that the slot machine in the corner was more likely to pay out after it had taken a certain amount (assumed to be about £50). So the more determined regulars would claim a seat in the bar where they could keep an eye on it, wait until a few people had been fleeced, and then they’d swoop in and maybe make enough money to buy a round.
Gaming machine manufacturers clearly spend a lot of time and thought tweaking the win chance to maximise the takings. Often the win chance will change dynamically based on all sorts of factors to keep people playing (eg let a new player win a small amount quickly, to entice them into paying all that money back in, in search of a bigger win). I wouldn’t be surprised if someone had specifically designed the coin chute on a slot machine to make the noise of coins being paid out sound as attractive as possible to everyone in the room.
tl/dr An enormous amount of time and thought is put into making gaming machines as profitable as possible, to entice players into ‘just one more try’.
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Back in the before times when I would go with my wife for the 3 hour grocery shopping trips I would spend the money she saved using coupons in the various claw machines near the check out that were put there to bilk kids and husbands out of their allowance.
I could always nab a couple but I would give them to any nearby kids watching.
We also have a shelf in our bedroom with a few special ones I got for my wife over the years.
Between claw machines and lottery tickets we could probably be retired by now.
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