Why do they rig claw machines?

Type of arcade game

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"Claw game" redirects here. Not to be confused with Claw (video game)

A claw machine in Ustroń, Poland

A claw machine is a type of arcade game. Modern claw machines are upright cabinets with glass boxes that are lit from the inside and have a joystick-controlled claw at the top, which is coin-operated and positioned over a pile of prizes, dropped into the pile, and picked up to unload the prize or lack thereof into a chute.[1][2] They typically contain stuffed toys or other cheap prizes, and sometimes contain more expensive items like electronic devices and fashion accessories.[3][4] Claw machines are also known as skill cranes, claw cranes, crane games, teddy pickers, and are known as UFO catchers in Japan due to the claws' resemblance to UFOs.[5][6][7]

The earliest claw machines are believed to have been created in the late 19th century and inspired by the machines used to build the Panama Canal, while the first patented claw machine, the Erie Digger, was inspired by the creation of the Erie Canal and invented in . It and its successor, the Miami Digger, were popular throughout the United States during the s, specifically during the Great Depression, as carnival attractions and as furniture in public places. By the s, claw machines were ubiquitous in both the United States and Japan; the success of Sega's UFO Catcher machines in the s and s inspired a claw machine craze in the latter country. Claw machines have made appearances in numerous video games, music videos, films, and television shows since at least the s.

In the late s, claw machines became immensely popular in South Korea and Taiwan as cheap entertainment due to their slowing economies at the time, with the number of claw machine arcades in both places rising into the thousands. Also in the s, claw machines that could be remotely controlled via mobile applications or websites began turning up online.

Claw machines are often rigged to modify the claw's strength on each turn, and are consequently considered gambling devices in some jurisdictions.

Early history

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Illustration of an Erie Digger in a issue of The Billboard

Claw machines are believed to have originated in the United States in the s, when they were made to resemble the machines that built the Panama Canal.[7] The first patented claw machine, the Erie Digger, was a glass box containing candy and other small objects, a chute, and a coin-operated miniature steam shovel that moved in an arc, could be moved with a handle, and could be lifted and dropped into the chute using a hand crank.[8] It was invented in , manufactured by the Erie Manufacturing Company, and named after the construction of the Erie Canal. It found success at carnivals, partially because it did not require electricity like other carnival attractions. Throughout the s, it saw use as furniture in train stations, hotels, drugstores, cigar stores, and bus stations, where it was used to keep customers entertained.[2] During the Great Depression, designing intricate, Art Deco claw machines for hotels and stores became a lucrative endeavor.[9]

The Miami Digger, invented by American carnival operator William Bartlett of Miami and patented by him in , improved upon the design of the Erie Digger by using an electric motor and allowing the crane to move around the entire box.[9] It was also known as the Nickel Digger, as it contained money, such as nickels and silver dollars, as prizes; premium versions of the diggers had watches and cigarette lighters as prizes for adults. Bartlett became rich from the popularity of the machines and died in .[2]

Global popularity

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In Asia

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A row of UFO catchers in Akihabara, Tokyo

Japanese companies Sega and Taito began designing trolley-style claw machines in the s.[2] They gained popularity in Japan during the late s, with crane games ranking among Japan's top ten highest-grossing electro-mechanical (EM) arcade games of and .[10][11] Sega released their UFO Catcher claw machine in and made their first shipment of it in .[12] It had sold 10,000 cabinets by , its popularity inspiring Sega's creation of the Dream Catcher in and the New UFO Catcher in while making the UFO Catcher series responsible for 90 percent of stuffed toy claw machine sales.[13] By , its claw could be changed to fit the sizes and shapes of different prizes, and it had become a craze across Japan: arcades started dedicating entire floors to UFO Catcher cabinets&#;of which Sega had sold over 40,000, making it Sega's best-selling game at the time&#;and the term "UFO catcher" became synonymous with crane games in Japan.[14][15][16]

Sega Shinjuku Kabukicho, a two-story Sega arcade in Shinjuku, Tokyo containing 477 claw machines, received the Guinness World Record for having the most claw machines in a single venue in , a record previously held by the Taito Station in Fuchū, Tokyo for having 454 machines.[17] As of , Yuka Nakajima of Japan holds the Guinness World Record for being the most successful claw machine player due to winning more than 3,500 Rilakkuma teddy bears from claw machines.[18][19] In , claw machines accounted for more than half of the revenue at Japanese arcades, according to the Japan Amusement Industry Association.[20] Japanese claw machines can also contain cakes as prizes.[21][22]

The number of claw machine arcades and the popularity of claw machines both experienced a sharp increase in South Korea in and , specifically in Seoul neighborhoods with universities like Hongdae and Sinchon. From to , the number of South Korean claw arcades increased from 20 to 1,900, while mentions of claw machines on Korean social networks also increased during that time. Korea JoongAng Daily and The Korea Herald attributed the increased interest to South Korea's harsh economy at the time leading to a desire for cheap entertainment, while U.S. News & World Report associated it with the country's increasing youth unemployment.[23][7][24]

A claw machine arcade in Hsinchu, Taiwan

In Taiwan, where claw machine arcades are usually open all day and owners sublet their machines to different operators, claw machines became especially popular as inexpensive entertainment starting in , due to their costing NT$10 to use. The number of claw machine arcades in Taiwan increased from 920 in to 3,353 in and, as of , there are more than 10,000.[25] A survey of children aged seven to 18 reported 32.7 percent of them using claw machines one to three days a week and over four percent using them every day.[26] The Central Bank of the Republic of China increased their budget in to produce more NT$10 coins to accommodate the increasing popularity of claw machines in Taiwan. By , the average monthly revenue for operating a claw machine was around NT$5,000.[4]

The largest claw machine arcade in China, LJJ Station in Beijing, has more than 60 machines with stuffed toy versions of characters from WeChat animations.[27] Before , claw machines were popular in Thai shopping malls; a survey conducted by the advocacy group No Gambling Youth Club stated that 75 of the 92 shopping malls surveyed contained 1,300 claw machines collectively.[28][29]

United States

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In the United States, claw machines became ubiquitous in the s.[2] They are common at carnivals, grocery stores, shopping malls, arcades, amusement parks, and bowling alleys.[30][31] The world's largest claw machine, according to Guinness World Records, is a 17 by 8 by 12 feet machine designed by the Dayton, Ohio-based creative agency Real Art and opened in .[32]

There were many instances of children getting stuck inside of claw machines in the United States throughout the s, including in Tennessee, New York, Kentucky, Nebraska, Pennsylvania,[32] North Carolina,[33] and Texas.[34]

Online and in popular culture

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Online claw machines are claw machines controlled remotely online, with prizes that get shipped to users' homes upon being won.[35] Since the s, mobile apps, such as Clawee in Israel and Sega Catcher Online in Japan, and websites, such as Netch in Japan and the Santa Claw in the United States, have allowed users to remotely use claw machines stored in warehouses in their respective countries.[36][37][6][38]

The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) video game Kirby's Adventure includes a minigame based on the UFO Catcher, while the PlayStation game Bomberman World has a UFO catcher-themed battle stage.[15][39] Sega's video game Yakuza and its sequels Yakuza 0 and Yakuza Kiwami also feature UFO Catcher machines.[40][41][42] The video game Link's Awakening includes a claw machine as a side activity.[43] In the film Toy Story, Buzz Lightyear and Sheriff Woody climb into a claw vending machine filled with claw-worshipping aliens.[44] In the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Skill Crane" from its fourth season, Squidward becomes addicted to trying to win a prize from a claw machine.[45] Claw machines have also been featured in the music videos for Delta Heavy's song "Take Me Home", Corpsegrinder's song "Bottom Dweller", and the City Girls' song "Good Love".[46][47][48]

Legality

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North America

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The passing of the Johnson Act by Congress in , which prohibited the transfer of electronic gambling devices across state lines, led to Miami Diggers at carnivals being destroyed by operators or seized by government officials. Carnival owner Lee Moss organized other carnival owners together to protest against the classification of the diggers as gambling machines. Because of this, a compromise was soon reached that allowed carnival owners to keep the diggers but required them to be manually operated with no coin slot and prizes that were not money and worth one dollar or less, while the government would tax each machine US$10. Regulations loosened in due to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) abandoning the Johnson Act.[2] As of , state regulations generally require that claw machines contain less valuable prizes.[31] Most states exempt claw machines from their gambling laws.[49]

In New Jersey, claw machines are regulated by the Legalized Games of Chance Control Commission. In , New Jersey Senator Nicholas Scutari proposed legislation that would add specifications to prevent claw machines from being unwinnable.[49] In response to a spate of lawsuits against California claw game operators, attorney Bob Snyder advised claw machine owners to avoid using the word "skill" in the game description decal present on most machines.[50]

In other jurisdictions, such as Alberta, Canada, skill cranes are illegal unless the player is allowed to make repeated attempts (on a single credit) until he or she wins a prize.[51] Skill cranes in single-play mode (where the player has only one chance per credit to try for a prize) were found by the Ontario Court of Appeal to be essentially games of chance, and therefore prohibited except at fairs or exhibitions, where they are covered by an exemption.[52]

Asia

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Claw machines were outlawed in Thailand after being classified as gambling devices by the Supreme Court of Thailand in , though, until , laws prohibiting their use were rarely enforced.[28] In , the Ministry of Interior in Thailand ordered a nationwide ban on claw machines after activists protested against their widespread availability.[29] However, the public prosecutor of Chiang Mai ruled in that claw machines were vending machines rather than gambling machines and were therefore legal.[53] South Korean law dictates that claw machines cannot carry prizes worth over &#;5,000 to prevent addiction. An investigation by South Korea's Game Rating and Administration Committee in found that the majority of claw machines they randomly inspected broke Korean law.[24] The Consumer Protection Committee of the Executive Yuan stated in that their investigation of claw machines in Taoyuan, New Taipei City, Kaohsiung, Taipei City, Tainan, and Taichung found that 70 percent of them contained illegal adult products such as vibrators and e-cigarettes.[54] In , the Ministry of Home Affairs in Singapore proposed capping the value of prizes in claw machines at S$100 in order to, according to them, "address the inducement effect of high-value prizes, without increasing the regulatory burden on operators".[55] In March , Brunei has banned claw machines as they have been deemed haram due to its gambling elements.[56]

Chances of winning

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A pair of E-Claw, claw machines created by Belgian manufacturer Elaut

Since the s, advertising for claw machines has suggested that they are able to be won completely through strategy and skill. Claw machines can be set to give players a chance of winning during every paid turn if they use a "Play Till Win" setting.[3] Settings like claw strength&#;which is controlled by the amount of voltage sent to a claw&#;and "dropping skill"&#;the ability of a claw to drop a prize back into the machine after picking it up&#;are frequently modified by arcade owners to control the odds of a player winning and are often based on how much money the machine has earned.[31] Claw machine strength-control has been reported in the United States, South Africa, South Korea, and Singapore.[30][3][24][57]

On social media platforms such as TikTok and YouTube, videos of people using claw machines and offering modifications for how to get prizes from them were popular in the s and s.[58][3] A report by Vox's Phil Edwards describing how claw machines were often rigged went viral online and became controversial among claw machine enthusiasts.[59] A report by Jeff Rossen for the American TV program Today showing the same thing prompted the American Amusement Machine Association, which represents arcade game manufacturers across the United States, to make their members sign a "Fair Play Pledge" in that required their machines to be winnable through skill alone.[60] The book How to Beat the Claw Machine: Tips and Tricks to Help You Win Big, written by American arcade owner Brian McKanna, offers tips on how to win prizes at claw machines, which he described as "absolutely rigged".[61]

According to a report by News24, most claw machines in South Africa can be set to only allow players to win if the machine has earned a certain amount of money.[62] A manual for the Intelligrab operating system, made by Belgian manufacturer Elaut, encourages claw machine owners to create the illusion that the player almost won the prize, and owners can adjust machines' claw strength per turn.[3]

References

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At some point or another you&#;ve probably played one of these claw machines, hoping to score the plush toy of your dreams. But despite your skill at perfectly positioning the claw over the prize and activating it, you&#;ve found that the pincers just don&#;t grab tightly enough to pick up a stuffed animal.

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It&#;s not your imagination. Those claw machines are rigged. But they&#;re rigged in a surprisingly clever way &#; and not the way most people suspect.

The claw is programmed to grab tightly only part of the time

Some people think the claw machine is so hard to win because the stuffed animals are packed so tightly together. But the bigger reason is more insidious than that: the claw machine is programmed to have a strong grip only part of the time.

This isn&#;t a closely kept secret. It&#;s publicly available information, pulled straight from the instruction guides for the biggest claw games out there. Open the manual for Black Tie Toys&#; Advanced Crane Machine. Look at page eight, section subheading &#;Claw Strength&#;:

The machine&#;s owner can fine-tune the strength of the claw beforehand so that it only has a strong grip a fraction of the time that people play.

The owner can manually adjust the &#;dropping skill,&#; as well. That means that on a given number of tries, the claw will drop a prize that it&#;s grabbed before it delivers it to you.

The machines also allow the owner to select a desired level of profit and then automatically adjust the claw strength to make sure that players are only winning a limited number of times:

This isn&#;t isolated to one claw machine or one company &#; this is standard practice industry-wide.

Want to win a prize from the Bling King? The machine&#;s instruction manual shows you&#;ll likely have to play dozens of times. The owner can program beforehand how often the claw&#;s grip is strong or weak (based on the voltage sent to the claw):

The big decision for machine owners is how fair or unfair they want to make the game. They could adjust the machine so that the claw only operates on full power one out of every 23 times. That would, in theory, create a profit of around 50 percent. (The machine also has ways to ensure this &#; if a player wins with a &#;weak claw,&#; the machine can wait even longer before sending full power to the claw.)

But owners also have to be careful, since no one wants to play a machine that never seems to work. So they might want to accept less profit in the short term by allowing the claw to be stronger more often, thereby giving the machine a better reputation.

For the player, however, there&#;s no way to know in advance how strong or weak a machine is.

States do regulate claw machines &#; but they typically focus on prize size

States regulate slot machines to make sure they&#;re not rigged too unfairly against players. But they rarely do the same thing for claw machines.

Instead, state regulations typically focus on keeping the value of the prizes in claw machines relatively low. Lawmakers seem to think that larger prizes would make claw machines more akin to gambling, whereas smaller prizes keep them safe for kids.

By contrast, there are fewer regulations on how strong the claw should be. If machine operators want to make the claw wildly unfair against the players, there&#;s little stopping them &#; in most cases, the only check is the machine&#;s reputation.

Even though it&#;s rigged, people are still tempted by the claw

If the claw is so badly rigged, then why do people keep playing this game? Starting in , the machines were regulated as gambling devices, but in , those regulations were relaxed. A claw boom began. Today, they&#;re ubiquitous in grocery stores, malls, and anywhere else with lots of foot traffic.

One possibility for their enduring popularity today: social media has made it easy for people to record their victories playing claw machines, and each victorious post or video about a successful claw machine attempt only serves as a commercial for the games. (By contrast, few people broadcast their claw failures.) That might give the impression that the game is way more winnable than it actually is:

Research has consistently shown that social media can inspire a fear of missing out on key relationships and experiences, and a claw victory is alluring. It&#;s easy to see a Facebook post about a claw machine victory and want to capture that glory yourself.

What&#;s surprising, meanwhile, is that claw devotees don&#;t use social media to better identify which claw machines are badly rigged and which aren&#;t. The fan site Be the Claw does some of this work, but it&#;s far from comprehensive. By the same token, it&#;s difficult to find claw machines on consumer ratings sites like Yelp. (A Yelp spokesperson says businesses must fall in certain categories to be classified on the site: an entire arcade can get rated, but a single claw machine usually can&#;t.)

For now, there&#;s only one sure-fire way to beat the claw machine: don&#;t play.

Update: Since this article was first published in April, a few notable things happened:

• BMI Gaming took down the PDFs of their instruction manuals, which used to be publicly available.

• A response to the article, published at Vending Times , provides more detail about how some claw machine operators are responding to charges of rigged machines. However, the article confirms what one source told me: confusing state regulations make it hard to know what each area&#;s law is, and self-policing remains the primary method of regulation.

• Finally, more than one person told me that they&#;d had more luck with Sugarloaf claw machines at Wal-Mart than they had with other claw machines. However, there&#;s no easy way to verify this claim, so claw operator beware.

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