Why you almost never win on those claw machines

Technology writer, Phil Edwards, says he has discovered why so many distraught and weeping children walk away from the claw games at the arcade empty-handed. He says he has seen the instruction manuals of some games, and discovered their secret.

The distressing thing about these games has always been seeing some lucky child wandering round the arcade with a toy tucked under their arm, so you know that somehow it must be possible to win a prize. Yet despite your efforts - and the inordinate amount of cash you put into the machine - you only ever seem to be able to stroke the toys.

When four-year-old Harry Howes from Tamworth gave up and climbed inside a claw machine in order to get his hands on a Minion toy, there were millions of people around the UK who wished they were small enough to use his clever solution (although it wasn't all that clever because he got stuck inside and had to be freed by the arcade operator).

Why?

Now Edwards claims there's a very good reason for our frustration: many of these machines are set up so that they won't grab a toy until they have taken enough money.

Until that point, the claw is designed to be weak, so it can't pick up and carry the toy. Only when you have fed enough money into it to make a sufficient profit, will it deliver full strength to the claw, so it can pick up and deliver a toy.

Just in case a canny observer takes the time to watch and count how many turns it takes between each win, the game also 'randomises' the wins within a range.

Will you play them?

This doesn't stop the games being entertaining to play. It just makes them games of chance and skill rather than skill alone. Knowing this means you can actually improve your chances of winning.

The games with lower value prizes are usually set to win more often, so if you're just keen to pick up a prize (regardless of what it is), you should look for relatively cheap prizes.

It's also important to bear in mind that not all claw games work like this, and many of them deliver full power to the claw every time. Before you play, you should watch the game first. If the claw seems to 'stroke' the prizes most of the time, then it may not be as good a bet as the ones that at least try to pick up a toy each time.

If the machine seems only to deliver power to the claw every so often, you should keep an eye on the game, to see roughly how long it is between each full power grab. You won't be able to time it exactly, but you'll be able to see whether you're happy with the odds.

Vox has produced a video explaining how the machines work, so you can decide for yourself whether or not the claw machine will be part of your next visit to the amusement arcade.

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