Flack's Daily Smack

I know what you mean about kids and carny games. They see the big prizes and figure they have a good chance of winning.

 

There's really three types of games:

1. big prizes - near impossible to win

2. competitive with one winner but size prize of prize depends on the number of players (i.e. the value of the prize is significantly less than the total $$ taken in)

3. easy win but small prize (so the value of the prize is less than the fee)

 

So the only way to win is to not play - which isn't appealing to kids.

 

I was a carny at the Calgary Stampede one summer. The game was a to knock the bottles over with a ball. The prize was ridiculously small, but you could trade up to bigger prizes if you won multiple times. I remember one guy who must have spent $50 trading up to our biggest prize.

That's exactly right. The game Mason wanted to play involved throwing darts to pop balloons. $2 throw, and you're guaranteed a win every time. For $2 you get a small prize. For 3 small prizes you got a medium prize. ($2x3=$6). For 3 Medium prizes you got a large prize ($6x3 = $18). The large prizes were those big inflatable Spider-Man and Shrek things that are $5 at the store.

 

I wonder what the magical age is where you begin understanding that midway games and ticket redemption games are rip offs?