Toy vending machines in Carlow Shopping Centre???

rox5

You know those machines with the teddys that have the 20euros stuck to them?

Does anyone actually WIN and of those teddys?

I mean they keep changing the toys now and again, but its seems to me that no one wins anything. I have gone these a good few times, and yet everytime the toy has someway of falling out of the claw.

I am just curious to know if anyone has every even gotton anything from them?
They have been there for as long as I can remember and surely does it not cost money to keep them there, if barely anyone plays them?

Thwip!

I've won one on my lunch. I'm hooked on those type of games though. A loose euro coin or two and one of those machines and I'm a happy fella. Teddy had a tenner rather than a twenty though :P

rox5

Thwip! wrote: »

I've won one on my lunch. I'm hooked on those type of games though. A loose euro coin or two and one of those machines and I'm a happy fella. Teddy had a tenner rather than a twenty though :P

Really? At least I know now that those machines are not completely impossible to do.

Thwip!

See the problem with it is stuff like a claw machine are built so that the majority of the time the grip is not strong enough to hold the teddy long enough. There's a switch inside each machine that can be set at the owners discretion to have the claw use its full grip every 5 plays, every 10 plays, every 12 plays...you get the idea. Now lets say the owner sets it so that every twelve plays the claw will work at full grip, that means the other 11 times it's almost certain, barring some manner of fluke, that the teddy will fall before it reaches the hole or wont even be grabbed at all. Then comes the twelfth play where the grip is at max. Now surely that means the teddy is guaranteed right? Nope, because that depends then on your placement of the claw. Get it properly hooked and you've got yourself a teddy with a note attached. Go too much in the wrong direction? A lot less likely to win, even at max grip. Now lets say in this example the machine costs €1 per play. That means the machine gets €12 before it offers you the best scenario for winning the teddy and the best scenario isnt even a certainty of winning.

Now take somewhere like Carlow Shopping Centre, which doesnt see the same foot traffic as say Fairgreen etc. The machine isnt as likely to be played....meaning if you decide to play it, there's a very good chance you're not on the max grip play and that becomes one expensive tenner you could win...

foggy_lad

Those yokes are just cuddly poker machines designed to take money from mugs, just like the rest of the gambling machines in shopping centres, pubs, chip shops and arcades around the country!