- The claw machines used in popular South African gambling halls are almost certainly designed to make you win before they let you win.
- And despite what some players believe, earning a stuffed animal from a claw machine has little to nothing to do with skill.
- The claw machine operating manuals and internal documents of the claw brands present at SA show how owners can set parameters such as claw force, when to drop a prize, and win ratios that guarantee a profit above anything else.
- For more stories, visit www.BusinessInsider.co.za.
Despite what many players claim, winning a prize from one of the claw machines so common in South African arcades requires little or no skill, documents intended for its owners show.
Winning has little to do with how the toys stack up, or whether or not they are easy to grab. Quickly getting a side view to make sure your claw is lined up correctly, as self-proclaimed experts may advise, is also pretty pointless.
The reason most people don’t win claw machines most of the time is probably much more calculated and cynical: most local claw machines are designed to only award prizes under pre-set and pre-programmed conditions, usually when a device has made enough money to justify giving it away. a stuffed toy
From time to time, you are most likely pumping money into a machine that has no interest in how good it can be, as the operating manuals for the many claw machines clearly show.
A warning in a claw machine manual for the ELAUT Intelligrab operating system.
claw machines: maSquerading as a game of skill
At the heart of many complaints about the devices is that the claw machines suggest to users that they are paying to play a game of skill. This is the message that these claw machines have communicated since their mass-market inception in the 1920s, that with a little finesse and good strategy, you have a fair chance of winning a prize every turn.
But unless you win on every paid turn – which is possible, under a setup rarely used in South Africa known as “Play until you win” – It is almost certain that claw machine owners have set parameters that at best make it a game of some skill only once they have made a stipulated win.
And given the dilapidated state of some of the machines in South Africa, some of which are around 30 years old, you’ll be lucky to get into the realm of a chance to win a prize with many of them.
Game of skill versus game of chance
Some countries and parts of the US and Canada have attempted to regulate claw machines.
In the 1950s, they were labeled as gaming machines by law in the United States. – but lobbying by carnival owners relaxed many of the initially strict laws, and officials rebranded them as “entertainment devices.”
Measures still in place in some places include governing prize value, clear indication of probability of winning, removal of scheduled win ratios, and attempts to make it a game of skill entirely.
Many manufacturers also preemptively removed reference to the word “skill” from trade and brand names as more people realized they were actually gambling.
Despite this, crane machines are ubiquitous in South Africa, often adjacent to but outside the casino environment in arcades geared towards children, and are overlooked by local gambling laws.
The closest equivalent in South African gambling legislation is for so-called “limited pay machines”.
Local legislation allowed 50,000 of these slot machines outside of casinos in South Africa. –because they cost a maximum of R5 per turn and pay maximum wins of R500.
Of the claw machines verified by Business Insider South Africa, all cost between R6 and R12 per turn. – far above the limited pay machines. The payouts, usually in the form of plush toys or similarly cheap rewards, are still variable, but are likely to be less than for a single turn if imported in bulk.
Local claw machine manuals
Many machines in South African arcades are also completely open to this manipulation.
To prove this, Business Insider SA located manufacturers’ operating manuals for various claw machines in the gaming halls of local casino complexes, resorts, and shopping malls.
The country’s two largest arcade operators were either unavailable or unwilling to comment on the record to Business Insider SA about whether their claw machines can be tampered with, and one admitted it knew it was possible to reduce the claw voltage in certain points to make sure they fell. awards
Another gaming network owner downplayed the matter, saying plush toys have become too expensive to stock, the machines too difficult to repair and their popularity with the public too low to justify their presence on his floors. But a visit to a facility the company oversees found at least ten claw machines in operation.
Many of the claw machines at local arcades are also very old, with some dating back to the mid-1990s. They are out of fashion in other parts of the world as flashier devices with better House-flattering configurations take over. But several are popular in the arcade business here and tick all the boxes for slot machines.
One you’ll find in mall galleries is the Maxi Claw. Business Insider SA played several rounds on these machines and not once did the claw clamp down hard enough to move one of the toys.
A Maxi Claw machine in the arcade.
These are made by the Taiwanese electronic gaming and gambling company Paokai Electronic Enterprise Co. The manual for this machine has clear instructions for setting various parameters that make winning impossible or unlikely at times. – despite pestering players into thinking they’ve beaten the system.
A Maxi Claw operating manual detailing how to adjust claw force and power cuts.
Most of the claw machines on South Africa’s more extensive gaming network come from the Chinese company ELAUT, often under the brand name Mega Crane and Candy Man. These date back to the 1990s and run on a circuit board called Eurograb, which some have described as easy to manipulate.
Mega Crane claw machines in an arcade.
ELAUT manufactures claw machines that allow owners to control all aspects of the winning process. This includes only occasionally grabbing at full strength and automatically lowering your grip power on the way to delivering the treat. – That’s why machines often drop toys seconds after making a clean pick up.
ELAUT is widely known for having machines that count the win-loss ratio, which explains why if you play often enough and spend enough money, you are likely to win. – but only once you or a previous player has paid multiple times for the low value prize.
This also raises the possibility that a more generous operator might see more value in providing regular cheap prize wins than going out of their way to hold on to plush toys. Or that some machines may pay more than others. But since many ELAUT machines in South Africa cost around R12 per turn, the win ratio is likely to be higher than on cheaper machines, given the low value of the prizes on offer.
Company documents show how to cheat players
An internal ELAUT document for its Intelligrab operating system is not subtle about its capabilities. The document says that players “should fall under the spell of the game” and make it appear like a game of skill.
“You should get the feeling that you control the game, that the machine does what you want, and that the grip can easily pick up the merchandise, but that you didn’t play precise enough and want to try again,” the document says.
A claw force tip in a claw machine operation manual for the ELAUT Intelligrab operating system.
It also addresses positive business prospects that owners can manipulate to their advantage.
“As an operator, you should try to find the right ratio between both factors. Our experience teaches us that a payout percentage of 25% to 40% gives the best results. To obtain this result, your machine is equipped with the most modern technology,” the document says.
These systems have two “essential qualities” – that it has a powerful claw with the potential to be “fast and precise”, but “on the other hand, the payment regulator that regulates that only what the operator wants is earned”.
An operating manual for Captain Claw machines showing owners how to set up a machine to win only occasionally, with settings between 3 and 54 spins before a win is allowed.
Social media keeps dreams alive – and revealing some scams
Despite existing documentation showing the ease with which arcade machine owners can rig most claw machines, ironically, social media is playing a big role in keeping classic arcade games in the spotlight. .
Videos of people playing slot machines in arcades are popular on YouTube, some with millions of views. And TikTok users regularly post videos with so-called “tricks” and tips to beat the rigged claw machines. – some of which have racked up as many as 40 million views despite their claims carrying little veracity.
But one of the most comprehensive and sobering takedowns of arcade scams comes from YouTuber Mark Rober, whose videos on the science of carnival scams and other arcade scams have more than 150 million views.
