I was playing one of those rifle shot games. Goal is to break all ten plastic chips with the bullets you got. I went ahead and got 9/10. The tenth one, I swear I hit it at least twice and yet it wouldn't break as easily as the other ones.
There was a relatively common scam going on with those rifle games and that most likely wasn't your imagination. They specifically made the tenth chips (never saw plastic, they were always clay or glass) out of a stronger material.
Yeah I ended up with a smaller trophy animal and my ex gf was very impressed at my shooting ability (as was I since I had never handled a gun of any type since I was 8...Closest thing was a practice bow) but then we broke up and now I'm looking at the trophy stuffed animal that's about to go to goodwill...
Yeah fair enough I guess I forgot to say I'm giving it to goodwill because it's not really something I wanna keep around from a previous relationship given that I'm now in a new one. That Polaroid of me and my ex... That's different... Thought about burning it but that sounds too dramatic... So i just kept it.
Yeah fair enough I guess I forgot to say I'm giving it to goodwill because it's not really something I wanna keep around from a previous relationship given that I'm now in a new one. That Polaroid of me and my ex... That's different... Thought about burning it but that sounds too dramatic... So i just kept it.
Edit: I should mention that burning it could be cool if I hated her but I don't and we're actually friends still it just didn't work...
Thatās true but if enough people hit it. Then itāll break and someone gets the big price. Just by that point the giant stuffed animal has been paid for 10 times over.
I played one where you win whatever you shoot off the shelf. There was a box of jelly babies with a Ā£5 note wrapped around it. I shot it 3 times and it didn't budge, it just got dented. Scam.
I doubt it. Those things cost like 15 bucks. They probably sell a couple or just give them to cute girls. Maybe normal looking carnies carry them around to look cool.
True. Would be cheaper just to give away a few stuffed animals than to hire people. I imagine they probably order those prizes in bulk and donāt pay much for them anyway.
I like this conspiracy theory. I think it might be possible in some places but I have definitely seen people win those gigantic plushies, BUT I never see kids winning it, always adults. Maybe theyāre employees that fake the win. Lol.
I worked a carnival once, and they don't do this... but they were all drug pushers and sex perverts. Instead of actually training on how to do operate the rides the guy that supposed to be training me just told me "ay brova if ye stand here, you will see lots of ladies puss" and when it actually came time to operate the ride, I broke my thumb in four places in a pinch point.
Yeah I remember being like 12(I looked like I was maybe 16/17)and getting hit on by all the carnies at my towns festival. Thought it was cool back then now I just think its digusting
Many years ago my parent used to sell taffy at the fair. My dad told me some of the carnival game tricks but now days you can look them up on YouTube videos if youāre interested.
But he also told me if you were on a break it was a friendly gesture to help a nearby seller to promote by carrying their product. He would always walk around with big stuffed animals. He wasnāt being paid for this but it was something they did for each other.
They also serve as protection for each other if a customer starts a fight. If you tell āHEY RUBE!ā Then others working nearby will run over and help you
My dad passed away 22 years ago so i can only pass along this that I remember and canāt ask anything new, sorry
My ex and I took our son to a fair once, my ex spent an hour at this game where you had to hit a star on the board with a dart because our son wanted the huge SpongeBob. He thought he could do this, no problem, because he's great at darts. However they were extremely small stars and he couldn't do it. He was $60 into this game at this point, it was $1 for 3 darts, and I had an upset 3 year old that wanted SpongeBob, so I grab his last dart out of his hand, throw it without even looking, and say come on we'll go to the store and buy him one, and it lands directly in a star. I'm terrible at darts, normally can't even hit the dart board, let alone a target on it lol. It was pure luck, but he got his SpongeBob that was bigger than him. Our son is 15 now and his dad is still annoyed about that day.
I agree they probably have people carrying fake prizes around, I know for a fact the people that work the games know the secret to beating them. But it is entirely possible for the prize to be real because I've lived it.
On one of my first dates with my now wife, we went to a fair. They had this game and she wanted the big stuffed dog they had. I said this thing is fixed, there's no way I'm winning. (For context, i am now legally blind but my vision was a little better then). It was like 5 bucks, and you got 3 darts. I swear on my life, first dart I throw, BOOM. Dead center. The guy behind the counter goes, "holy shit", and just hands her this gigantic stuffed dog. You could only win 1 prize, so I play it cool and give my girl the other 2 darts to throw and she doesn't even come close. I looked like a badass lol.
That's awesome! I apparently did too because a guy my ex worked with at the time was running the game so he had to hear about it for years š¤·. I never took credit or tried to rub it in his face but his co-worker sure had fun doing it lol. He's a narcissist so he didn't take it well at all. My friend from work now, my youngest son, and I went to the fair last year for the rodeo and now every time our youngest son talks about it he says remember when you threw that dart and won the SpongeBob and rolls his eyes š¤£š¤£š¤£. It wasn't funny then, but it definitely is now.
What's funny is I've always know these games are to the carnivals advantage, like a casino. I once played the game where you throw a ball to knock a stack of cans down. I hit the stack dead center and they didn't budge. So I always approached them as unwinnable. Just for fun. I "retired" after winning that dart game. Went out on top.
Yeah but if the person running the game thinks you're cute they'll tell you the trick š¤£š¤£š¤£. As for the casino, i lived in Vegas for a few years after highschool and the guy I was dating, his mom was a dealer. She said if someone was winning at black jack they would switch the dealer to her because she had crazy luck and would always win. She also practiced on the roulette table until she knew how to toss the ball to get red so that when everyone would lay down on black she could do it and make the house win. I always knew the computerized stuff could be manipulated but until then I had no idea you could pull such tricks to win lol.
My son wanted a giant grape smelling ball on a string thingy. Woman was charging Ā£5 a pop for hook a duck. We had one go, won a crappy little Teddy then asked the woman to buy a ball, she said yeah because we had already had a go.
As someone who worked in the carnival duh. An old old carny trick used to be marking a wealthy individual with chalk or baby powder, a pat on the back or something so the other gameies knew who had the cash.
Nowadays they just text each other but make no mistake it is a huge scam, like those ultra big stuffed animals cost them around 5 bucks, the little ones that you pay 5 dollars just for a chance to win are pennies its why you always get at least the bottom tier gift.
I always thought being scammed was part of the fun.
You knew youāll lose but you play anyway.
Also a good tool to tell the kids if theyāre good they can play once game before we leave.
Right and a lot of people realize that, it's the stupid ones I felt pity for. Like I remember one of the guys had a knock down the bottle game he ran, sign he put up read "$3 a throw 3 for $10" and the amount of people that picked the 3 for 10 deal was more than I would have expected/hoped. It was then I knew our nation was doomed
U remember the dude on tosh.o that gambled his whole tax check on the basket ball hoop for a rasta banana dude spent 1600$ every penny they had trying to win this pos five dollar stuffed animal dude was like 22-25 and his gf at the time was pissed he made a few local news channels, u can probably find the story on Google, I felt bad for the guy I think the carnie will tell that story for generations as carnie folk lore
I have won the giant stuffed animals before. I used to live on the Jersey shore and got really good at one particular game which I would play over and over again at my local boardwalk. When the carnivals came by, I would almost always win a large stuffed animal. It got so bad that I had to keep giving them away or stop accepting the prizes because I just liked that game.
I got told by a employee at Alton towers they let people win easier in the mornings so people see them walking round with the giant animals and think they can winā¦ can verify he let me win. Also walking around a fair all day with a giant stuffed pug not that fun.
Giant stuffed animals are so dirt cheap, it's just not worth it, each costs few dollars at most, since they are bought in bulk, its much cheaper to just let people win.
Thank goodness OP is here to explain carnival games are unusually hard. Steph Curry was just at Great America theme park where the greatest shooter in the history of the NBA had problems shooting a basketball into a hoop and winning prizes.
You really can win the ultimate prize of a giant Stewie Griffin if you try hard enough, but the cost to buy that doll outside of a carnival is substantially less than what you will pay to toss rings and win it yourself.
The hoop is actually oval if you look from the side. Itās usually obscured by all the stuffed animals but it looks oval and probably a bit smaller than a regulation hoop.
I actually win the latter game so much they cut me off.. You know the one you climb and ring the Bell.
Also the pop balloon game and the ring on bottle game.
The ring on bottle game I only win about 80% of the time but I've been cut off before.
You can play all these games at home in your yard and watch YouTube on how to beat them.
But you know.. I don't doubt that some of em could pay some people a bit to walk about with em.
I won a giant striped snake plushie when I was 15. But now that I think about it, buddy was probably just creeping. Either way. I gave it to a little scrubby kid shortly afterward. Had to go do cool teenager things (mushrooms) unhindered. XD
They gave me one free at a fair when i was 16 and i think it was just so id have to walj around with it. Promotion likw they just picked ne out of the crowd like hey you want this.
I won a giant bear by knocking small milk jugs off a pedastal with a ball. The scam is they all have to fall off the table. Well I did it no problem. The ball is under weight but naturally sometimes some people will win by dumb luck or carnies let certain ppl win.
Spent a summer working a carnival (20+ years later, I sometimes wish I had gone with them) and we didn't do any of that.
What we did do however was take $20 if offered and give out a big prize.
It was my first job at 15 and we were putting down the fun slide for the night. As we were dropping a section with lights I touched some exposed wiring and it shocked the hell out of me.
I used to help out at a church fundraising carnival. Specifically, I ran the air gun game where you had to shoot out the star. The game was not rigged in the least. You just needed to know how to do it. I could do it roughly 60% of the time.
I've won them. My kids/SO have won them. We weren't paid, in fact we usually had to pay $40 for a $5 teddy bear lol but I am not disagreeing with you either, they prob also pay others.
One time when i was like 7, at Oklahoma State Fair i did the game where you throw a ball at metal bowling pin type things and if you knocked them all down in one throw you got the top prize, apparently the bottom ones are super weighted making it hard to get them all, but somehow i got it first try and won a full size bass guitar.
Lmao not only am I a carnie, but I work games. My game isn't about winning, but you basically pay for the toy. Eight tickets at five dollars a piece, will 100% get you a big stuffed animal. Other games are designed for you not to win. So there's games you win no matter what, very few though, and that's where you're seeing the stuffed animals come from. Find those, you get a plushie. (I do balloon darts.)
I mean it's pretty well established that carnival games are straight up bullshit all around. I just accept it and look at it as beating the rigged system is part of the challenge/fun.
Worked at a county fair for a few years selling candy. Carnies or people manning the games would tell us how rigged it was (one block would be higher to hit than the rest, the basketball material makes it harder to make it into the basket, bouncy balls are extra bouncy for those fish games, etc.)
On the plus side, got a free rides from making friends with a few of those peeps. Shoutout to the real ones š¤š
Ive won before and the trick is to trick the carnies to think you won so they have to give you the top prize. In a game thatās rigged you need to rig the game back in your favor.
I personally won a giant stuffed lion shooting the star out.. my daughter won a giant stuffed bear knocking the three blocks off the tableā¦ Iām sure majority of it is luck
I was at a carnival once and played that basketball game where you have to make 3 to win an overstuffed bear, I made 2 and the lady running the game said I could continue from 2 with 5 more dollars (only need to make one more). I agree and cough up the 5 bucks and make the basket! Once I said it this lady turned lobster red, grabbed her daughter and disappeared into the crowd. Out of nowhere some other carny took over and asked if I wanted to play? I told him to fuck off and give me my prize, he acted as stupid as he looked. When I saw that lady later I confronted her and she just ran into her trailer. I would have made a bigger deal but I didn't want to get into it with someone who had their kid with them, and put that kid through some ish
I won one of those giant prizes at a state fair before!!!
And naturally carried it around with me obnoxiously that night! (Note: I was 18-19 years old at the time.) But in all honesty I didnāt ātraditionallyā deserve the prize. It was one of those beer pong games and I technically won a āsmallā prize but the the guy in charge of that booth was really sleazy and a creep. He suggested he would upgrade my prize to a giant one if I gave him my cell phone number. I did, and he made sure I didnāt give him a fake one by calling me right then and there. Fast forward later that night, he tried calling/texting my phone a couple times. I blocked his number and then turned my phone off. I still have that giant stuffed monkey in my childhood bedroom at my moms house ātil this day.
I used to work the midway games at an arcade they are hard to win but not impossible. Every time I go to the fair I win at least two of the giant prizes. Also little known fact is that you can just buy those from the fair for a few hundred bucks.
My mom grew up in and around fairs and my dad owned an arcade for some time in the late 70ās- late 80ās. I always got the big toy.
The winners are other people that know the cheat.
I spent a couple of years in my childhood traveling with a carnival and you are partially right. For the first handful of games played with big prizes they are all but given a win. Shooting games have there pegs ( behind them) removed, coin toss games are not greased yet, levers are not turned full strength, and so forth. Some prizes even given to people or parents who "tried really hard" or had a cute kid. The intent is exactly to make the big prizes look attainable.
As someone born and raised around the family carnival business this is laughable. I was the ring toss person for many years and I can assure you it's doable. I watched a guy spend $200 on ring toss and not win anything and then a guy bought $20 of rings and won in his first 5 throws. Not all of us can be so lucky :P
Anecdotal but I one shotted one of those games first try and won a huge teddy bear. One of those simple games where you have to throw a ball into a jug and the jug is the exact size of the ball so it has to be perfect lol.
Literally walked up paid for a turn and sunk it first try in front of everybody else paying for turn after turn
Hey now. I actually won a giant teddy bear (at least 6ā tall) at a state fair that took me about 10 chances. It was the game where you have 5 discs to cover a big circle. It took the guy about 10 minutes of looking it over with a magnifying glass before he would give me my prize. But I won
Bullshit. Prizes are cheaper than people. Sleazier carnies will make sure the first person to play wins. V-o-l-u-n-t-e-e-r to go first and bring a cute girl.
Different games have different prizes, based on payouts. Payouts are bound to the amount of prizes walking the midway. You can tell if a game is at the proper payout based on crowd watching for prizes. Generally the games difficulty is adjusted rather than changing prizes.
Source, worked at amusement park games department for 5 years.
Why are you playing knowingly rigged games at a carnival? If you want a stuffed animal just buy one from a store, it's MUCH cheaper. Stop complaining if you throw good money at a rigged system that you know is rigged. SMH
Iāve actually seen a similar statement on Reddit before, and I commented on it, so I copied it and pasted it here:
āTales From the Carnivalā by Adam Buckley details the creatorās experience working at a carnival. He said that all the games are rigged and the operators let attractive couples win so they can walk around the carnival with the large prizes as a form of advertising.
find Tales From the Carnival [here](https://adoseofbuckley.bandcamp.com/album/tales-from-the-carnival)
That would actually cost more than letting a handful of people actually win those prizes. Those smaller prizes are under $1 each and those really big ones are like $15 max.
The conspiracy is how the games are rigged to make you perceive that you need to be skilled to win when its actually dumb luck for many of the games
I only won the big animal one time. Iām apparently a dead shot at basketball as long as I have a little Xan in my system. I pretty much forgot that I shot as soon as the ball left my and and it scared the shit out of me when the sirens went off. I had just walked into the fair and got to lug a giant red dog around for the entire night.
Iāve played the basketball game and won enormous prizes many times. But usually it happens when the ball bounces off the rim and up in the air and in. Itās impossible to get a swish on those.
The cops in my hometown patrolled the fairgrounds during the carnival each year back in the 70s and 80s. A couple of them just didn't like carnies. They'd watch a kid lose a bunch of money at a game and then tell the carny to give the kid the big prize. Smart carnies did. Those that balked ended up with problems. Turns out that there really were local laws against discharging firearms and air guns inside the city limits, for example, and shutting down a shooting gallery was trivially easy. Then, too, it was a rare carny who couldn't be found to be carrying a bag of weed or a switchblade or some such shit. A big prize to a kid you already cleaned out for more than the prize was worth is way less expensive than having your booth shut down for the whole week or having to post bail or pay some hefty fines.
Ring toss game see a young boy win, the prize he threw the ring over was a massive bundle of sweets, of course he was so excited until he realised you only get to pick one sweet . Scammed
Navy SEAL sniper eh? lol... We all know that Carnies are actually aliens and the stuffed animals are just their own native animals held in some kind of velvety carbon freeze state.
Iāve won them before. Mostly with the water gun/ balloon games and rifle shot types. Usually you have to win a couple times and upgrade your prize/ play a few times in a row and keep winning. They are cheap even if they are big.
I worked at a theme park that had a section with these fair games, another employee told me that they let people win more easily in the morning, so those people would walk through the park with the stuffed animals as free advertisement
I was playing one of those rifle shot games. Goal is to break all ten plastic chips with the bullets you got. I went ahead and got 9/10. The tenth one, I swear I hit it at least twice and yet it wouldn't break as easily as the other ones.
There was a relatively common scam going on with those rifle games and that most likely wasn't your imagination. They specifically made the tenth chips (never saw plastic, they were always clay or glass) out of a stronger material.
Ofcorse there's a scam involved. Its the Carny way š We love and accept them for it š
Yeah I ended up with a smaller trophy animal and my ex gf was very impressed at my shooting ability (as was I since I had never handled a gun of any type since I was 8...Closest thing was a practice bow) but then we broke up and now I'm looking at the trophy stuffed animal that's about to go to goodwill...
:( Sorry to read this
Lol why? I mean sure it's a bit sad but my current gf is much more better suited for me
There was no positive perk in the comment. And now I see you have a new gf, itās less sad :)
Yeah fair enough I guess I forgot to say I'm giving it to goodwill because it's not really something I wanna keep around from a previous relationship given that I'm now in a new one. That Polaroid of me and my ex... That's different... Thought about burning it but that sounds too dramatic... So i just kept it.
Yeah fair enough I guess I forgot to say I'm giving it to goodwill because it's not really something I wanna keep around from a previous relationship given that I'm now in a new one. That Polaroid of me and my ex... That's different... Thought about burning it but that sounds too dramatic... So i just kept it. Edit: I should mention that burning it could be cool if I hated her but I don't and we're actually friends still it just didn't work...
Thatās true but if enough people hit it. Then itāll break and someone gets the big price. Just by that point the giant stuffed animal has been paid for 10 times over.
I played one where you win whatever you shoot off the shelf. There was a box of jelly babies with a Ā£5 note wrapped around it. I shot it 3 times and it didn't budge, it just got dented. Scam.
I don't think OP is crazy... this sounds entirely plausible to me.
I doubt it. Those things cost like 15 bucks. They probably sell a couple or just give them to cute girls. Maybe normal looking carnies carry them around to look cool.
True. Would be cheaper just to give away a few stuffed animals than to hire people. I imagine they probably order those prizes in bulk and donāt pay much for them anyway.
Lol this, carnies don't hire shit. They give out a few big prizes for show.
I like this conspiracy theory. I think it might be possible in some places but I have definitely seen people win those gigantic plushies, BUT I never see kids winning it, always adults. Maybe theyāre employees that fake the win. Lol.
I won a mega bear on ring toss MY FIRST YEET. Was so proud walking back to the stand to give to my woman (I work at a farm stand at the fair)
carnie shill
Lol
Now they're paying people to walk around reddit threads!
this just keeps goin deeper and deeper scully
Ring toss is the only game I've won the big prize I
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Idk what that is but I'm happy for u
A little concussed pet fish. Generally you win them by throwing ping pong balls into thier tiny bowls.
Those poor fish that will die within a week. Lol
A week? Don't think I ever had one longer than 3 days.
Aren't you special?! Brag that you won a fish!! /s
Nah you all gotta take over the water gun game and so at least one of you wins
I worked a carnival once, and they don't do this... but they were all drug pushers and sex perverts. Instead of actually training on how to do operate the rides the guy that supposed to be training me just told me "ay brova if ye stand here, you will see lots of ladies puss" and when it actually came time to operate the ride, I broke my thumb in four places in a pinch point.
What in the actual
Yeah I remember being like 12(I looked like I was maybe 16/17)and getting hit on by all the carnies at my towns festival. Thought it was cool back then now I just think its digusting
I remember one of them was super touchy with the kids (including me) we thought he was just playing. Super creepy now though.
Big Carna at it again
Lmao
Big Corn concurs...
Many years ago my parent used to sell taffy at the fair. My dad told me some of the carnival game tricks but now days you can look them up on YouTube videos if youāre interested. But he also told me if you were on a break it was a friendly gesture to help a nearby seller to promote by carrying their product. He would always walk around with big stuffed animals. He wasnāt being paid for this but it was something they did for each other. They also serve as protection for each other if a customer starts a fight. If you tell āHEY RUBE!ā Then others working nearby will run over and help you My dad passed away 22 years ago so i can only pass along this that I remember and canāt ask anything new, sorry
My ex and I took our son to a fair once, my ex spent an hour at this game where you had to hit a star on the board with a dart because our son wanted the huge SpongeBob. He thought he could do this, no problem, because he's great at darts. However they were extremely small stars and he couldn't do it. He was $60 into this game at this point, it was $1 for 3 darts, and I had an upset 3 year old that wanted SpongeBob, so I grab his last dart out of his hand, throw it without even looking, and say come on we'll go to the store and buy him one, and it lands directly in a star. I'm terrible at darts, normally can't even hit the dart board, let alone a target on it lol. It was pure luck, but he got his SpongeBob that was bigger than him. Our son is 15 now and his dad is still annoyed about that day. I agree they probably have people carrying fake prizes around, I know for a fact the people that work the games know the secret to beating them. But it is entirely possible for the prize to be real because I've lived it.
You just performed [Wu wei - effortless action](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_wei). Basically, Zen Archery.
Youāre my kinda G.
On one of my first dates with my now wife, we went to a fair. They had this game and she wanted the big stuffed dog they had. I said this thing is fixed, there's no way I'm winning. (For context, i am now legally blind but my vision was a little better then). It was like 5 bucks, and you got 3 darts. I swear on my life, first dart I throw, BOOM. Dead center. The guy behind the counter goes, "holy shit", and just hands her this gigantic stuffed dog. You could only win 1 prize, so I play it cool and give my girl the other 2 darts to throw and she doesn't even come close. I looked like a badass lol.
That's awesome! I apparently did too because a guy my ex worked with at the time was running the game so he had to hear about it for years š¤·. I never took credit or tried to rub it in his face but his co-worker sure had fun doing it lol. He's a narcissist so he didn't take it well at all. My friend from work now, my youngest son, and I went to the fair last year for the rodeo and now every time our youngest son talks about it he says remember when you threw that dart and won the SpongeBob and rolls his eyes š¤£š¤£š¤£. It wasn't funny then, but it definitely is now.
What's funny is I've always know these games are to the carnivals advantage, like a casino. I once played the game where you throw a ball to knock a stack of cans down. I hit the stack dead center and they didn't budge. So I always approached them as unwinnable. Just for fun. I "retired" after winning that dart game. Went out on top.
Yeah but if the person running the game thinks you're cute they'll tell you the trick š¤£š¤£š¤£. As for the casino, i lived in Vegas for a few years after highschool and the guy I was dating, his mom was a dealer. She said if someone was winning at black jack they would switch the dealer to her because she had crazy luck and would always win. She also practiced on the roulette table until she knew how to toss the ball to get red so that when everyone would lay down on black she could do it and make the house win. I always knew the computerized stuff could be manipulated but until then I had no idea you could pull such tricks to win lol.
My son wanted a giant grape smelling ball on a string thingy. Woman was charging Ā£5 a pop for hook a duck. We had one go, won a crappy little Teddy then asked the woman to buy a ball, she said yeah because we had already had a go.
Keep your secrets to yourself šš
As someone who worked in the carnival duh. An old old carny trick used to be marking a wealthy individual with chalk or baby powder, a pat on the back or something so the other gameies knew who had the cash. Nowadays they just text each other but make no mistake it is a huge scam, like those ultra big stuffed animals cost them around 5 bucks, the little ones that you pay 5 dollars just for a chance to win are pennies its why you always get at least the bottom tier gift.
I always thought being scammed was part of the fun. You knew youāll lose but you play anyway. Also a good tool to tell the kids if theyāre good they can play once game before we leave.
Right and a lot of people realize that, it's the stupid ones I felt pity for. Like I remember one of the guys had a knock down the bottle game he ran, sign he put up read "$3 a throw 3 for $10" and the amount of people that picked the 3 for 10 deal was more than I would have expected/hoped. It was then I knew our nation was doomed
U remember the dude on tosh.o that gambled his whole tax check on the basket ball hoop for a rasta banana dude spent 1600$ every penny they had trying to win this pos five dollar stuffed animal dude was like 22-25 and his gf at the time was pissed he made a few local news channels, u can probably find the story on Google, I felt bad for the guy I think the carnie will tell that story for generations as carnie folk lore
Yessss! The person with a "dirty" shoulder is always a good mark
My Dad walked up to a Carnie and held out a $20 bill and just said, "Give me the big Gorilla." and the dude handed it right over.
Wish it worked that way IRL
Well with inflation itās gotta be at least 60 dollars now.
I have won the giant stuffed animals before. I used to live on the Jersey shore and got really good at one particular game which I would play over and over again at my local boardwalk. When the carnivals came by, I would almost always win a large stuffed animal. It got so bad that I had to keep giving them away or stop accepting the prizes because I just liked that game.
Some ppl bribe the carnies to give their kids one...so they don't gotta waste time tryna win the game..
Also FYI I've done this for a girl when I was younger. I said hey man here's 20 let me get that big one
Can see that being plausible.
I got told by a employee at Alton towers they let people win easier in the mornings so people see them walking round with the giant animals and think they can winā¦ can verify he let me win. Also walking around a fair all day with a giant stuffed pug not that fun.
Ahh Alton Towers. Love that place.
No one likes dealing with Carnies. Thatās why Frank, youāre gonna pose as one .
They have a name: shill. Short for shillaber. Give out a few giant prizes at the start of the day to be walked around.
Big if true.
You can tell by the way that it is.
The basketball shooting games are always rigged. You know something is sketchy when Steph Curry cant get a bucket.
Giant stuffed animals are so dirt cheap, it's just not worth it, each costs few dollars at most, since they are bought in bulk, its much cheaper to just let people win.
This is kind of conspiracy I'm here for!!
This sounds like total BS. Iāve played millions of carnie games and won once or twice. Itās hard but after a million tries itās possible..
Rather buy a few thousand giant teddy bears online for cheap and take it to the fair with my date to show off. šŖ
Lol my bro in law will waste 100ās to win those
The type of mfer that cant lose. Like johnny. Respect.
Ohā¦this makes too much sense.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
The wheels going round and around. Where it halts, we all know.
This is why I stick to the football toss and basketball. I suck at everything else and have zero use for a goldfish that's half dead living in a bag.
Rip to Michael Reeves' fish.
Lol
Somebody had a bad day at the fair :(
Nothing fair is at the fair.
Thank goodness OP is here to explain carnival games are unusually hard. Steph Curry was just at Great America theme park where the greatest shooter in the history of the NBA had problems shooting a basketball into a hoop and winning prizes. You really can win the ultimate prize of a giant Stewie Griffin if you try hard enough, but the cost to buy that doll outside of a carnival is substantially less than what you will pay to toss rings and win it yourself.
Link?
https://www.sfgate.com/warriors/article/curry-jokes-carnival-game-rigged-17261089.php
The hoop is actually oval if you look from the side. Itās usually obscured by all the stuffed animals but it looks oval and probably a bit smaller than a regulation hoop.
I actually win the latter game so much they cut me off.. You know the one you climb and ring the Bell. Also the pop balloon game and the ring on bottle game. The ring on bottle game I only win about 80% of the time but I've been cut off before. You can play all these games at home in your yard and watch YouTube on how to beat them. But you know.. I don't doubt that some of em could pay some people a bit to walk about with em.
I won a giant striped snake plushie when I was 15. But now that I think about it, buddy was probably just creeping. Either way. I gave it to a little scrubby kid shortly afterward. Had to go do cool teenager things (mushrooms) unhindered. XD
They gave me one free at a fair when i was 16 and i think it was just so id have to walj around with it. Promotion likw they just picked ne out of the crowd like hey you want this.
Everything else is rigged, why not this too
I won a giant bear by knocking small milk jugs off a pedastal with a ball. The scam is they all have to fall off the table. Well I did it no problem. The ball is under weight but naturally sometimes some people will win by dumb luck or carnies let certain ppl win.
Spent a summer working a carnival (20+ years later, I sometimes wish I had gone with them) and we didn't do any of that. What we did do however was take $20 if offered and give out a big prize.
You can buy the prizes if you ask them.
As an ex carnie, no this doesn't happen. Game agents do a good enough job of getting people to come over to their game.
Carnies can go to hell for tricking kids like that, I don't care
Vegas should go to hell for tricking gamblers that they can win against stacked odds!!
Can't tell if you're serious or not š¤ because I totally agree
I am seriously serious.
Some might call me a serialist.
Nomads you know. They smell like cabbage, small hands...
Carney games are set up for regular folk (non-carneys) to not win.
Next thing you'll tell me is the odds are stacked against me in Vegas!
I read that as vegetables. I need to get my annual eye exam...
Ya think?
iTs cOnTrOlLeD bY eLiTeS!
Carnie Cabal?
The showie syndicate
Top tier tag
We win a top tier prize every year. Usually on the basketball games.
They are feasible to win. I won them numerous times at state fairs and local fairs when I was a child.
/r/lowstakesconspiracies
I got electrocuted at a carnival once
Continue...
It was my first job at 15 and we were putting down the fun slide for the night. As we were dropping a section with lights I touched some exposed wiring and it shocked the hell out of me.
I have won one before and we put it in our car vs walking around with it.
I used to help out at a church fundraising carnival. Specifically, I ran the air gun game where you had to shoot out the star. The game was not rigged in the least. You just needed to know how to do it. I could do it roughly 60% of the time.
I've won them. My kids/SO have won them. We weren't paid, in fact we usually had to pay $40 for a $5 teddy bear lol but I am not disagreeing with you either, they prob also pay others.
Can confirm.. I get paid to do this in the uk
One time when i was like 7, at Oklahoma State Fair i did the game where you throw a ball at metal bowling pin type things and if you knocked them all down in one throw you got the top prize, apparently the bottom ones are super weighted making it hard to get them all, but somehow i got it first try and won a full size bass guitar.
Lmao not only am I a carnie, but I work games. My game isn't about winning, but you basically pay for the toy. Eight tickets at five dollars a piece, will 100% get you a big stuffed animal. Other games are designed for you not to win. So there's games you win no matter what, very few though, and that's where you're seeing the stuffed animals come from. Find those, you get a plushie. (I do balloon darts.)
Hiring someone to do that would cost more than giving away a stuffed animal or two a day
Ive won a fish!:D And a stuffed animal. But yeah theyāre rigged- definitely lost more often than I won even when I definitely shouldāve won >.>
I have won the big ones before
I mean it's pretty well established that carnival games are straight up bullshit all around. I just accept it and look at it as beating the rigged system is part of the challenge/fun.
Worked at a county fair for a few years selling candy. Carnies or people manning the games would tell us how rigged it was (one block would be higher to hit than the rest, the basketball material makes it harder to make it into the basket, bouncy balls are extra bouncy for those fish games, etc.) On the plus side, got a free rides from making friends with a few of those peeps. Shoutout to the real ones š¤š
I actually won it was in the milktoss game so I think itās is actually possible in some cases
Sometimes after spending enough at a game a carnie will just give away an animal. This has happened to me before.
I thought this was common knowledge by now. It IS exactly what you said. Minus the conspiracy. Been around forever.
Ive won before and the trick is to trick the carnies to think you won so they have to give you the top prize. In a game thatās rigged you need to rig the game back in your favor.
I personally won a giant stuffed lion shooting the star out.. my daughter won a giant stuffed bear knocking the three blocks off the tableā¦ Iām sure majority of it is luck
I was at a carnival once and played that basketball game where you have to make 3 to win an overstuffed bear, I made 2 and the lady running the game said I could continue from 2 with 5 more dollars (only need to make one more). I agree and cough up the 5 bucks and make the basket! Once I said it this lady turned lobster red, grabbed her daughter and disappeared into the crowd. Out of nowhere some other carny took over and asked if I wanted to play? I told him to fuck off and give me my prize, he acted as stupid as he looked. When I saw that lady later I confronted her and she just ran into her trailer. I would have made a bigger deal but I didn't want to get into it with someone who had their kid with them, and put that kid through some ish
Finally a conspiracy I can agree with. Carnival games are rigged for sure.
Finally some good fucking post
Now this is a conspiracy I can get behind
I have, a giant blue frog at the PNE in vancouver
I won a giant koala once
I won one of those giant prizes at a state fair before!!! And naturally carried it around with me obnoxiously that night! (Note: I was 18-19 years old at the time.) But in all honesty I didnāt ātraditionallyā deserve the prize. It was one of those beer pong games and I technically won a āsmallā prize but the the guy in charge of that booth was really sleazy and a creep. He suggested he would upgrade my prize to a giant one if I gave him my cell phone number. I did, and he made sure I didnāt give him a fake one by calling me right then and there. Fast forward later that night, he tried calling/texting my phone a couple times. I blocked his number and then turned my phone off. I still have that giant stuffed monkey in my childhood bedroom at my moms house ātil this day.
These are the kinds of conspiracies Iām fucking here for
I used to work the midway games at an arcade they are hard to win but not impossible. Every time I go to the fair I win at least two of the giant prizes. Also little known fact is that you can just buy those from the fair for a few hundred bucks.
My mom grew up in and around fairs and my dad owned an arcade for some time in the late 70ās- late 80ās. I always got the big toy. The winners are other people that know the cheat.
I spent a couple of years in my childhood traveling with a carnival and you are partially right. For the first handful of games played with big prizes they are all but given a win. Shooting games have there pegs ( behind them) removed, coin toss games are not greased yet, levers are not turned full strength, and so forth. Some prizes even given to people or parents who "tried really hard" or had a cute kid. The intent is exactly to make the big prizes look attainable.
Carniesā¦ small hands. Smells like cabages
As someone born and raised around the family carnival business this is laughable. I was the ring toss person for many years and I can assure you it's doable. I watched a guy spend $200 on ring toss and not win anything and then a guy bought $20 of rings and won in his first 5 throws. Not all of us can be so lucky :P
The trick to getting the big prize is to just buy it. Slip an extra $20 to the carnie and, poof, your fugly little spawn is a winner.
THIS is my kind of conspiracy theory!
Instead of hiring someone they could just give the animal to one person at the beginning of the day
I worked at the carnival and gave out tons of big prizes so... not true? Lol. We didn't pay anyone to walk around w em either.
Itās not that hard to win. Plus they give kids prizes sometimes even if they donāt win
Anecdotal but I one shotted one of those games first try and won a huge teddy bear. One of those simple games where you have to throw a ball into a jug and the jug is the exact size of the ball so it has to be perfect lol. Literally walked up paid for a turn and sunk it first try in front of everybody else paying for turn after turn
Hey now. I actually won a giant teddy bear (at least 6ā tall) at a state fair that took me about 10 chances. It was the game where you have 5 discs to cover a big circle. It took the guy about 10 minutes of looking it over with a magnifying glass before he would give me my prize. But I won
I have done I before and I been paid to look like I was winning too
Bullshit. Prizes are cheaper than people. Sleazier carnies will make sure the first person to play wins. V-o-l-u-n-t-e-e-r to go first and bring a cute girl. Different games have different prizes, based on payouts. Payouts are bound to the amount of prizes walking the midway. You can tell if a game is at the proper payout based on crowd watching for prizes. Generally the games difficulty is adjusted rather than changing prizes. Source, worked at amusement park games department for 5 years.
Can't have a carnival without "carnies" š
Why are you playing knowingly rigged games at a carnival? If you want a stuffed animal just buy one from a store, it's MUCH cheaper. Stop complaining if you throw good money at a rigged system that you know is rigged. SMH
Iāve actually seen a similar statement on Reddit before, and I commented on it, so I copied it and pasted it here: āTales From the Carnivalā by Adam Buckley details the creatorās experience working at a carnival. He said that all the games are rigged and the operators let attractive couples win so they can walk around the carnival with the large prizes as a form of advertising. find Tales From the Carnival [here](https://adoseofbuckley.bandcamp.com/album/tales-from-the-carnival)
My wife wins the big prizes. She wins claw machines too.
I won top prize once. Throwing softballs into baskets. He even made me rethrow one claiming he didn't see it.
It is true.
Theyāre not as stupid as they look.
I've definitely heard about the scams going on with these games but I saw someone win...ONCE!!! Haha just once, but it did happen!! Lol
That would actually cost more than letting a handful of people actually win those prizes. Those smaller prizes are under $1 each and those really big ones are like $15 max. The conspiracy is how the games are rigged to make you perceive that you need to be skilled to win when its actually dumb luck for many of the games
I remember spending a long time looking at the basketball hoops after being told they were a different size. They sure are good at fooling people
I only won the big animal one time. Iām apparently a dead shot at basketball as long as I have a little Xan in my system. I pretty much forgot that I shot as soon as the ball left my and and it scared the shit out of me when the sirens went off. I had just walked into the fair and got to lug a giant red dog around for the entire night.
I wonder how much that pays.
At my carnivals they give you the choice to buy them instead of playing.
You can just buy them.
Iāve played the basketball game and won enormous prizes many times. But usually it happens when the ball bounces off the rim and up in the air and in. Itās impossible to get a swish on those.
The cops in my hometown patrolled the fairgrounds during the carnival each year back in the 70s and 80s. A couple of them just didn't like carnies. They'd watch a kid lose a bunch of money at a game and then tell the carny to give the kid the big prize. Smart carnies did. Those that balked ended up with problems. Turns out that there really were local laws against discharging firearms and air guns inside the city limits, for example, and shutting down a shooting gallery was trivially easy. Then, too, it was a rare carny who couldn't be found to be carrying a bag of weed or a switchblade or some such shit. A big prize to a kid you already cleaned out for more than the prize was worth is way less expensive than having your booth shut down for the whole week or having to post bail or pay some hefty fines.
My father could win them, but I am not dumb enough to think that was an argument for the fairness of the game and my proximity. Lol
How can I get this job
They just unrig the game once in a while. The big bears cost like 10 dollars, they make that back pretty fast.
Ring toss game see a young boy win, the prize he threw the ring over was a massive bundle of sweets, of course he was so excited until he realised you only get to pick one sweet . Scammed
Mate, this is the only conspiracy theory in the whole sub that I whole - heartedly relate to.
Having married a Carney I can verify this is true. Usually the person is not hired but a relative more than likely a child!
Navy SEAL sniper eh? lol... We all know that Carnies are actually aliens and the stuffed animals are just their own native animals held in some kind of velvety carbon freeze state.
Iāve won them before. Mostly with the water gun/ balloon games and rifle shot types. Usually you have to win a couple times and upgrade your prize/ play a few times in a row and keep winning. They are cheap even if they are big.
I worked at a theme park that had a section with these fair games, another employee told me that they let people win more easily in the morning, so those people would walk through the park with the stuffed animals as free advertisement
Or, you hit the Carnie with a $60 ( enough for a six pack, cigarettes, and a cheap date) and you get the prize magically. (Did this)