The Worst Casino Ever (Comic Relief)

Greetings!

I would like to relate my experience yesterday in what has to be the worst casino ever.

EDIT: The statement below has nothing to do with our WoV Member, Face, who is an excellent guy!

Like an awful casino should, this one has a, "Face," if you will. An iconic mascot instantly recognized by millions of patrons and would-be patrons the country over:

EDIT: The statement above has nothing to do with our WoV Member, Face, who is an excellent guy!



Here comes the argument, "Mission146, are you out of your mind? Chuck-E-Cheese is not a casino!"

Isn't it?

I know, Chuck E Cheese is a family-friendly environment (my son and I went together) in which mediocre (being generous) food is served at a fairly reasonable price.

Argument that Chuck E Cheese IS a Casino

If anyone has ever been to a Chuck E Cheese, then one notices that there are games that require tokens, for which you pay money. You will use these tokens on said games to win tickets, which then can be redeemed at the gift area for prizes. However, it is also possible to simply, "Buy tickets," which I put in quotation marks because you don't actually get the tickets, just the ticket value. Tickets come at a cost of $0.01/ticket, on direct.

Each game is one token, and how much one pays for a token depends on how many tokens one buys at a time, and whether or not one has a coupon. Coupons/Discounts for big token buys are the equivalent of Match Play coupons, which are a typical advertising form used by casinos.

As mentioned, you can use the tokens to play games to win tickets. Many of these games have results that will pay more tickets that the equivalent number of pennies used to play the games, while some results will not. One difference between Chuck E Cheese and a casino is that some games do not involve tickets in anyway whatsoever.

In this sense, every token is a bet.

Further, all of these bets have potential returns that may or may not be more than the equivalent number of pennies. Also, much like a casino, some of the games are games of pure chance while others are games of skill in which the ET (Expected Tickets) will vary based upon one's skill level.

...or do they?

Now, the five reasons that Chuck E Cheese is the worst casino ever:

1.) Bait & Switch

There have historically been many casino promotions documented in which the House changed the terms of the promotion due to finding themselves at a huge disadvantage. While a good few of these promotions have been Blackjack-related, there have been others. Arguments can be made as to the legitimacy of such a switch, usually the fine print allows it, but from a moralistic standpoint...

Should the casino knowingly take a shellacking by eating it on the promises made in a bad (for them) promotion, or should the casino not have the responsibility for doing the math work before throwing out something that some Marketing Director, who probably hasn't even seen an algebraic equation since his Junior year of college, came up with off of the top of his head.

The casino should have that responsibility, and then by acting in a responsible way, they can offer promotions that are honest and can be carried through for the appointed time.

Chuck E Cheese is worse than a casino in this regard because they offer promotions that are still financially advantageous for them, (selling food at a fraction of what it actually costs them) but still fail to honor those promotions.

I went on-line and obtained a coupon that was to expire on 7/2013 for a $19.99 large pizza, two soft drinks (with all of those kids running around, I'd have preferred a hard one) and 40 tokens. Breaking it down, that's basically $10 worth of tokens and a large pizza/two pops for $9.99. It's a good deal, they still make money, everyone is happy.

We arrive at Chuck E Cheese and had to park in a different parking area of the shopping plaza...which is always a bad sign of things to come. I tried to convince my son to go to, "That nice Chinese place," because I knew things were going to go downhill in a real hurry. I was hungry, and therefore, desperate. I didn't exactly lie in my description of the Chinese place, it's just that I had no idea whether or not it was actually, "Nice," as I had never been there...

He was not having that.

We walked into an absolute madhouse. I don't know if all locations are like this, but all parties are paired together with a stamp with a number, ours may have been, "666," that can only be seen under a special light. The numbers must match when you leave or you are an attempted kidnapper. I'm all for that, of course!

Anyway, this place exceeded building occupancy hours before, it must have, you could hardly see anything in the place with all of the people in there. The manager (assuming) came over and told the girl, "Only people buying food, now, we're too busy." The girl then asked if we were buying food, and I replied in the affirmative. Good thing we didn't go to the Chinese place, or no Chuck E Cheese for us. Good call, son!

Long story short, we went to the order station where I was told that my coupon was expired. I informed the young lady that she may want to check the calendar, because I did not believe we were in 2014 already. She then stated that the particular coupon was not offered at that location, then she picked up a coupon sitting on the register in plain sight for $19.99 Medium Pizza, Two Drinks, 25 Tokens, and said in a conspiratorial tone, "...but I can let you use this one."

Cool, I'm getting shanked for a pizza size and fifteen tokens ($3.75), your generosity knows no bounds.

I'm guessing that coupon is not accepted anywhere, as no locations are, "Participating locations."

Promises Made, Promises Broken.

2.) Rigged Games

With how packed the place was, there were basically two types of games, those that were available and those that were not available. In other words, games that sucked and games that didn't suck.

The games that sucked generally involved sticking a token down a chute and seeing how many tokens it knocked down, which were then translated into tickets after being significantly miscounted to the player's detriment. Alternatively, one could put a token in a game and spin some wheel or another which would proceed to one of the worst results possible.

Focusing on the latter type of game, I smelled an AP opportunity as there were games that offered prizes of over 25 tickets. One such game involved manually spinning a wheel which would then land with the arrow on a result...similar to the big wheel, only you get to play the dealer.

It didn't matter.

My son spun it first and ended up with a result of 1 ticket, which occupied a very small spot both above and below the, "100 tickets," spot. He played another token and spun again, same result. I played a token and spun for the same result. Keep in mind that there were multiple prizes occupying space equal to the, "100 tickets," space, as low as 2 tickets. I played one more and spun it in such a fashion that it should have landed on the opposite side of the wheel, no difference, one ticket.

We proceeded to a gorilla game in which you grabbed handles and shook with all of your power and tickets were dispensed, allegedly, according to how strong the player was. The handles would vibrate and the gorilla would blow what smelled like really stale cigarette smoke halfway through the game...right at you. I don't know if you've ever been to one of those low-class diners with the blue-haired woman inevitably named Sue puffing on an unfiltered Pall Mall who leans over (while blowing smoke in your face) and asking, "What'll it be, sug?" This game smelled like that lady.

Anyway, we each played it and achieved 3000 points which were good for five tickets. We each got exactly 3000 points. The problem with that is the assumption that I am no more or less physically powerful than my four-year old son, on whom I've got about 150 pounds...

If you perform too well in a casino game, by card-counting, for example, they will occasionally back you off. Chuck E Cheese is no different.

3.)Getting, "Backed Off"

Perhaps the line was drawn when I got my tire iron out of the car, brought it in, and proceeded to beat all Hell out of that gorilla.

I'm kidding, we did not get backed off from the establishment, or even a game, but from our table.

We were in the process of eating the food, that actually came out in a reasonable amount of time given how busy they were...they must have multiple microwaves...and a young waitress came over and asked, "Are you going to be done with this table soon? People are waiting for tables."

My four-year old was actively chewing at the time, four pieces of regular pizza remained, and our apple dessert pizza was untouched.

I replied, "Yes, absolutely. Please clear away all of this uneaten food, and if it would be convenient for you, just go ahead and take what the boy is chewing out of his mouth. I will warn you, though, he may bite when he feels threatened."

She stopped over about three minutes later saying, "I know, but do you have some kind of guess as to how long you will be?"

We were ready for the table to be cleared a few minutes later, so I went over to the young lady and said, "Thank you for your exemplary customer service, and as a token of my appreciation for the care with which you provided same to us, I would like to offer this to you."

I stuck out my closed fist, she stuck out her hand, into which I dropped a penny.

"You can buy a ticket with that, if you are interested."

She said, "I'm sorry, really I am. I don't like to hassle people, my manager keeps making me go around and ask everyone."

I responded, "Well, that sucks and I'm sorry about my joke. If you would point her out, and I can have my penny back, I'll go give it to her."

I felt bad for being a sarcastic jackass, so I took out my wallet and gave her a five.

If Chuck E Cheese cannot yet be considered a casino, given the wagers for tickets, rigged games, and getting backed off, then perhaps it is an on-line casino, like BetFred, full of games that outright cheat!

4.) Cheating Games

How can a game cheat?

Let's look at a football-throwing game designed for older children and adults, a game of skill. If you throw in the top hole, you get 50 points, and it increases by 10 for every successful throw in the last fifteen seconds. If you throw in the middle, 30 points, bottom, 20 points.

Fortunately, the top hole was almost exactly in-line with my release point, because I'm fairly tall. It was basically the equivalent of floating a pass over the defensive line and to my receiver running a slant route over the middle, and there was no blitz! There was pressure, though, a two-minute timer that counted off three seconds for every one actual second. Good thing time is relative, or that would be cheating in itself.

This game had a Progressive Jackpot. If you achieved, "Hall of Fame," level you got 120 Tickets, and it increased by two tickets for every token wagered on any unsuccessful HoF attempt. To add to the difficulty, I actually stood a step or two back from right against the machine and had my son pitching me the balls from where they came out.

The first time I played, I scored 680 total points and looked down to see the HoF level was 690 points and now 122 tickets.

Playtime is over.

I asked my son to stand aside and decided to get really serious about beating the 690 points. It still said 690, it said 690 after I put the token in, it said 690 as the game counted down to the starting whistle...

I scored 970 points, HoF level was now 1010, and I got tickets for the second-highest tier.

That's when I shouted, "YOU F***ING LIAR," at the machine, pulled out my .22 and pumped that S.O.B. full of lead!!!

Okay, I didn't. My son smiled at me and said, "Dad, you won ten tickets again, you are awesome!" Crap, how could I be angry with the machine? It made the kid happy.

It's important to remember that all of these games, even when fair, have a huge House Edge built-in.

5.) House Edge

Some of the games cost a token, with a best possible result of less than 25 tickets, need I say more? How about Skee Ball? One token, score 42000-45000 (you'd have to be a God) and get fifteen tickets!

Conclusion

I ended up buying twenty additional tokens for $5.00, and we had a great time, overall. We ended up playing a total of 45 tokens, (with ten games in which tickets were in no way involved) and got a return of 133 tickets. IOW, $8.75 bet with a $1.33 return or 15.2% return.

The pizza could have been worse. It was basically the same as Domino's Pizza before they changed the crust and minus all of the puddles of grease on top. The tables had Parmesan, Pepper, Salt and Crushed Pepper on them, which were necessary if you wanted the pizza to taste like anything.

You can do worse than a pizza that tastes like nothing, though. I've been to a number of pizza places in which they went to great lengths to make their pizza taste like something, and it was a huge mistake.

The dessert pizza was quite good.

Inevitably, my son wanted a prize that cost more than the total of the tickets we won. That's no surprise. If I'd have asked what 133 tickets would get me, "Shown to the door," would have likely been the response. I will say that their toys/candy/games for sale/tickets are all priced completely within reason, though. Even the logo stuff. My son got a Chuck E Cheese hat for $8.99 and some weird kaleidoscope candy dispenser for $5.99.

FUNNY MOMENTS OF THE DAY:

1.) My son went into the tubes and I grabbed his shoes when he came out to put them back on, except they were the wrong shoes. Same exact shoes, but two sizes two small. I returned them and retrieved the right shoes before anyone noticed.

2.) Some little kid in the birthday party section decided Chuck E Cheese (dude in costume) was hungry, and shoved a piece of pizza in his face. No wonder they don't accept the good coupons, it's going to cost a pretty penny to get the sauce out of that costume.

Quote: Mission146

2.) Some little kid in the birthday party section decided Chuck E Cheese (dude in costume) was hungry, and shoved a piece of pizza in his face.

This made me laugh!

This post has Buzz written all over it....

good writing!

I just want to add that even though the price of the ticket is 1 cent each, it is actually worth much much less.
The items you redeem with 500 tickets, definitely worth less than 1 dollar, by any standard.

I agree.. it's a casino for kids. I suspect my love of all things gambling comes from spending countless childhood hours in the boardwalk arcades that are basically mini-casinos themselves. They even had slot machines that paid off tickets.

Great post, I hate Chuck E Cheese. It is hell on earth for parents. I can think of few things more disgusting than a cheese pizza there. Maybe the Circus Circus buffet? Toppings add a little flavor. Of course kids will eat anything if you call it pizza.

A chuck-e-cheese like place near me had a promotion where they would sell you a gold movie pass to a decent local theater for 125 tickets. This is the kind of movie pass with no restrictions on time. I tried calculating the EV and for most games it looked like it would cost about $20 per ticket, which was uninspiring.

However, they had this one coin flip game that I happen to be really good at. The top prize was 100 tickets for a hit in the hardest area. I played it for about 30 minutes and won about 900 tickets. That is 7 movie passes for $9. I am sure I could do better with practice. Depending on the resale value (~$7-8) you could make living doing this, but I am sure you'd get backed off pretty fast.

Quote: pokerface

good writing!

I just want to add that even though the price of the ticket is 1 cent each, it is actually worth much much less.
The items you redeem with 500 tickets, definitely worth less than 1 dollar, by any standard.

Thank you for the compliment!

I agree about many of the lower-level prizes, but paying $8.99 for a hat that advertises their location, or $9.99 for a T-Shirt that does the same thing is fairly reasonable. There was also a train set for, "4000 Tickets," that was definitely worth about that. I believe I saw it in Toys R Us for the Mid-35's.

By the way, it is a TITO system now! They used to have a scale and weigh the tickets, but now you have to feed ticket after agonizing ticket into this machine...after waiting twenty minutes for the people in front of you...that tallies up your tickets and prints you a slip with your ticket total.

Quote: Pokeraddict

Great post, I hate Chuck E Cheese. It is hell on earth for parents. I can think of few things more disgusting than a cheese pizza there. Maybe the Circus Circus buffet? Toppings add a little flavor. Of course kids will eat anything if you call it pizza.

The toppings were hopeless. Red Onions, Green Peppers and Pineapples...too sparse to accomplish anything.

It was all salt for my son and all crushed pepper for me. He was all smiles all the way, just happy to be there, but I could tell he was not a huge fan of the pizza. He never puts additional salt on anything!

EDIT: Thanks for the compliment!

Quote: sodawater

I agree.. it's a casino for kids. I suspect my love of all things gambling comes from spending countless childhood hours in the boardwalk arcades that are basically mini-casinos themselves. They even had slot machines that paid off tickets.

I actually remember the Jersey Shore Boardwalk Arcades where you used real Quarters (not tokens, except sometimes they painted the quarters that came out of their change machines red so they'd kind of looked like tokens and you "had" to use them there, probably illegal) but you won colored tokens in the slot machines, not tickets. Skee-ball was always tickets, but they had Video Poker and Slots that paid off tokens. Red were 100, Purple 1000, etc. Then they'd dump them into some bin that sorted them and told you how many points you had. It also was my gateway to real gambling.

Quote: bbvk05

A chuck-e-cheese like place near me had a promotion where they would sell you a gold movie pass to a decent local theater for 125 tickets. This is the kind of movie pass with no restrictions on time. I tried calculating the EV and for most games it looked like it would cost about $20 per ticket, which was uninspiring.

However, they had this one coin flip game that I happen to be really good at. The top prize was 100 tickets for a hit in the hardest area. I played it for about 30 minutes and won about 900 tickets. That is 7 movie passes for $9. I am sure I could do better with practice. Depending on the resale value (~$7-8) you could make living doing this, but I am sure you'd get backed off pretty fast.

I would be surprised if you got backed-off from that game. I obviously have no way of knowing, but it would not surprise me to find that the establishment in question was themselves getting the movie tickets for free, so they don't care. If an individual only wins one ticket, then they will feel the need to use it which will cause them to pay for additonal tickets.

If that is not the case, then movie theaters make the majority of their profits from concessions, anyway. A friggin' killing!

In fact, the theater will have a figure agreed upon with a distributor known as the, "Nut," which will cover the expenses of showing the movie before which gets taken off the top before revenues are distributed between the distributor and the house. It is doubtful that these promotional tickets are construed as, "Tickets sold," which means there is no revenue, hence, someone merely being in the seat and watching the movie costs them almost nothing. Perhaps a few cents if they go and take a leak.

It's all about the concessions!

Quote: cclub79

I actually remember the Jersey Shore Boardwalk Arcades where you used real Quarters (not tokens, except sometimes they painted the quarters that came out of their change machines red so they'd kind of looked like tokens and you "had" to use them there, probably illegal) but you won colored tokens in the slot machines, not tickets. Skee-ball was always tickets, but they had Video Poker and Slots that paid off tokens. Red were 100, Purple 1000, etc. Then they'd dump them into some bin that sorted them and told you how many points you had. It also was my gateway to real gambling.

Defacement of currency, don't know when this would have been, but you could do six months for that now!

"You held three low cards to a straight flush when you had a pair of tens, for God's sake, Junior, get it right, you'rer six years old!!!"

I remember we had a slot machine in second grade that you got to pull if you did something outstanding, like remembering to zip your pants after you went to the bathroom, and it released coins that bore no resemblance to actual currency. Anyway, you got three pulls and then you added up your coins, and the total would go into a book. When you hit 200 coins, (I think) then you got a paper giving you an extra trip to the water fountain whenever you wanted to use it. I could stretch that five, maybe even ten minutes. "What can I say, Mrs. Teacher, huge line at the water fountain...of big winners!"

Quote: Mission146

I would be surprised if you got backed-off from that game. I obviously have no way of knowing, but it would not surprise me to find that the establishment in question was themselves getting the movie tickets for free, so they don't care. If an individual only wins one ticket, then they will feel the need to use it which will cause them to pay for additonal tickets.

If that is not the case, then movie theaters make the majority of their profits from concessions, anyway. A friggin' killing!

In fact, the theater will have a figure agreed upon with a distributor known as the, "Nut," which will cover the expenses of showing the movie before which gets taken off the top before revenues are distributed between the distributor and the house. It is doubtful that these promotional tickets are construed as, "Tickets sold," which means there is no revenue, hence, someone merely being in the seat and watching the movie costs them almost nothing. Perhaps a few cents if they go and take a leak.

It's all about the concessions!

I am pretty sure that if you worked it for 8 hours a day for a couple days you'd get bounced pretty quick. Pretty sure the tickets are not free.

Also, you are only mentioning one aspect of movie theater economics. The lease agreements between the studios and theaters specify that the theater give a certain % of the cost of each ticket to the studio. The trick is that it is subject to minimums, ie the theater must pay at least $2 per viewer or whatever. Just having someone in the seat costs the theater. The amounts slide as the movie gets older, but this never changes for any movie in a real theater.

Theaters aren't generally giving away tickets as promotions... they just sell them close to cost.

Quote: bbvk05

I am pretty sure that if you worked it for 8 hours a day for a couple days you'd get bounced pretty quick. Pretty sure the tickets are not free.

Also, you are only mentioning one aspect of movie theater economics. The lease agreements between the studios and theaters specify that the theater give a certain % of the cost of each ticket to the studio. The trick is that it is subject to minimums, ie the theater must pay at least $2 per viewer or whatever. Just having someone in the seat costs the theater. The amounts slide as the movie gets older, but this never changes for any movie in a real theater.

Theaters aren't generally giving away tickets as promotions... they just sell them close to cost.

You might get backed off, in that event. If it is a multi-player game, though, you're almost acting as a shill, showing everyone who lacks your skill how easy it is.

I saw this airplane thing in the mall where you pulled this string and it would fly way up and come right back to you. The demonstrator was doing this with ease. I got it for my son, this was about a year ago, I spent three days sucking at it and it got hung up in a tree and broke on the fourth.

I suppose it may differ from theater to theater, but I had a friend who managed one and he told me about this, "Nut," concept. He also told me that it was revenue-sharing, with the distributor getting the better part of the revenue, no flat-minimum, and only anything over the nut, but again, I'm sure every house may have different types of contracts that they feel meet their business needs more than other types.

They may be selling them to the establishment, but I'd give some away even if I couldn't sell them! People with kids coming in? That's a goldmine for concessions. The kids are all thirsty, all of them inevitably like different types of pop, so they won't share. They like different types of candy, so they won't share. They think they want popcorn, find out for the fourth time that year they don't actually like popcorn...Gold Mine!!!

Dave and Buster's is the same setup, but more geared for adults, and it's usually fairly empty at the two locations I've frequented. My daughter accosted One Direction when they were visiting the Falls location last year. Even though it's a Dave and Buster's however, they don't honor the promotional coupons I get from Dave and Buster's because it's not a participating location. I don't go there anymore.

Down the hill about 50 yards from the Dave and Buster's is the Great Canadian Midway, a much better experience for the kids and the adults. Downstairs are all of the arcade games, a bit of pinball, and the traditional bowling games where you get tokens. Prizes rotate so if you go in there later in the year, there will be some different prizes. Prizes are also seasonal, so you'd likely see stuff for Valentine's day if you went there tomorrow.

Back in the time when my daughter was interested in hanging around with me, we would go to the arcade once every couple of weeks or so and while she was playing games, there were two arcade games that were games of skill - one was FreeCell and the other was Cubix (where you basically line up patterns of three or two cubes and the cubes fell -- your goal was to clear most of the cubes until you reached the next level). I got so good at the game that I would pull off a jackpot everytime (between 200 and 1200 tickets) which would put are arcade play close to positive EV. We'd save up our tickets until we had enough to buy something really decent, like a lava lamp, some stuffed animals, etc, board games, etc. I still have a coupon for 10K tickets in my desk that I have to use. There were other +EV games we would play too, including a hippo game where you would fire a hippo at a target -- there were five targets and my daughter and I would split the targets up so that we would always get the max tickets (usually about 25 - 30 for 2 tokens or 50 cents) -- a good way to let off some steam too.

Anyway, upstairs from there is Boston Pizza (great Pizza, good pasta, great wings, lots of beer) which features a nice bar. Just off the bar are more games that collect tokens and are honored downstairs. Anyway, I highly recommend it over Dave and Busters, and it has a very large setup where it never seems to be crowded... and it's a 3 minute walk from Casino Niagara and the Falls.

I've never stepped foot in a chuckie cheese.

We had Showbiz Pizza where I grew up...... And I always LOVED to go there. They were eventually bought by Chuck E Cheese and rebranded into their show. But I always loved Showbiz more.

Long live the Rock-afire Explosion!!!!!!! (Check the link ^^)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rock-afire_Explosion

Quote: boymimbo

Dave and Buster's is the same setup, but more geared for adults, and it's usually fairly empty at the two locations I've frequented. My daughter accosted One Direction when they were visiting the Falls location last year. Even though it's a Dave and Buster's however, they don't honor the promotional coupons I get from Dave and Buster's because it's not a participating location. I don't go there anymore.

Down the hill about 50 yards from the Dave and Buster's is the Great Canadian Midway, a much better experience for the kids and the adults. Downstairs are all of the arcade games, a bit of pinball, and the traditional bowling games where you get tokens. Prizes rotate so if you go in there later in the year, there will be some different prizes. Prizes are also seasonal, so you'd likely see stuff for Valentine's day if you went there tomorrow.

I've meant to check out a Dave & Buster's, but have never gotten around to it. The Great Canadian Midway sounds great, if I am ever out that way.

Quote: cestanl

We had Showbiz Pizza where I grew up...... And I always LOVED to go there. They were eventually bought by Chuck E Cheese and rebranded into their show. But I always loved Showbiz more.

Long live the Rock-afire Explosion!!!!!!! (Check the link ^^)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rock-afire_Explosion

It looks like essentially the same thing, to me, but I've never been there. I'd probably have the same nostalgia if I grew up with that.

Quote: cestanl

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rock-afire_Explosion

correct your link by backing off the 'endquote' thing

As a youngster, I spent quite a few hours (and most of my paper route money) at Aladdin's Castle, an arcade chain owned by NAMCO.

I blame them for my interest in gambling. One game stands out in particular; a game called Colorama. This was basically simplified roulette. Five large color sections, of varying sizes spun around while a ball dropped into a compartment. The smaller the compartment, the higher the payout.

I also remember when we sold magazines in middle school, one of the 'prizes' was the opportunity to spin a Big Six wheel. One year I landed on the $20. The next year I landed on the $1.

Quote: PGBuster

As a youngster, I spent quite a few hours (and most of my paper route money) at Aladdin's Castle, an arcade chain owned by NAMCO.

I blame them for my interest in gambling. One game stands out in particular; a game called Colorama. This was basically simplified roulette. Five large color sections, of varying sizes spun around while a ball dropped into a compartment. The smaller the compartment, the higher the payout.

I also remember when we sold magazines in middle school, one of the 'prizes' was the opportunity to spin a Big Six wheel. One year I landed on the $20. The next year I landed on the $1.

That's great!

Here's how I got my start:

https://wizardofvegas.com/forum/las-vegas-casinos/circus-circus/7477-will-somebody-please-think-of-the-children/3/#post176398

The, "Claw-Games," were also a big one for me as a kid. I still play them to this day, but only when I know something is an easy snatch. They didn't always put generic stuffed animals in them, though. They used to be the real deal, but the operators were just more diligent about wedging them together to make them harder to get. You'd have an authentic teddy bear that would be $10.00 on the shelf, and ask yourself, "Can I work this out of there for $1.00?" Give it to some girl, we're talking elementary school.

The street fairs were also a big one. They'd let you play Bingo at any age, and then there were over/under type card games and dice games, rigged and with a huge CE (Carny-Edge) to begin with. It was cool with the over/under if you were a kid, though, they'd usually let you win a few until you started cranking up your bets...so just don't crank up your bets. You could also just fade what most people were doing, and you would win more than you probabilistically should. Especially if you were betting small compared to the others.

Just don't play on the last day of the fair. They really put the screws to you on rigging the game during the last day.

Quote: Mission146

The Great Canadian Midway sounds great, if I am ever out that way.

Agree with this. I haven't been there since the 9/11 border shutdown, but I always stopped for an hour or 4 whenever I was in the area.

Also agree on the Showbiz Pizza, that place was great. Way better than any of the kid's arcades of today. I miss a solid, quality arcade =(

Mission -

I finally had a chance to read your lengthy post. I could not agree more.

But I also love your writing style. You really paint a picture.

Thanks for the hilarious post Mission....as a kid I wasted a ton of time in arcades trying to win cheap ass prizes I could have bought for a fraction of the amount of quarters I dumped into those things. Between that and baseball cards, I wasted all my paper route money basically. Now I have a two year old son, so I'm sure many trips to Mr. Cheese's fine establishment are in my future.

Edit: I started wondering do paper routes for kids even exist anymore?..Not in my area they don't anyway.

I don't think so, they are all delivered by middle aged people out of their cars.

Quote: DJTeddyBear

Mission -

I finally had a chance to read your lengthy post. I could not agree more.

But I also love your writing style. You really paint a picture.

Thanks for the compliment, DJTeddyBear!

Thank you also, Vendman1!

Quote: Mission146

That's great!

Here's how I got my start:

https://wizardofvegas.com/forum/las-vegas-casinos/circus-circus/7477-will-somebody-please-think-of-the-children/3/#post176398

Thanks for sharing that. I had a similar game for the PC--Trump Castle 3. I used to bet $1000 on the boxcars and never understood why I always lost...LOL.