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Uncovering the Secret of Claw Machines [1]

['Mark Frauenfelder']

Date: 2023-10-30

If you've ever played a claw machine, you probably know the claws usually don't grip tightly enough on a prize to carry it over to the exit chute. The last time I was in Japan, playing claw machines with my daughter, we won fewer prizes than ever before. We still had fun, anyway!

In this video, a woman who bought a used claw machine found the operating manual inside. It indicated that there's a DIP switch that can be set to change how frequently the claws actually work. It can be set to allow a player to win every time, or as little as one out of fifty times. The default setting is one out of ten times. In other words, it's like a voting machine, as fantasized by Trump.

Here's what the instruction page looks like:

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[1] Url: https://boingboing.net/2023/10/30/woman-buys-claw-machine-and-learns-the-secret-about-how-they-are-rigged.html

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