I always knew that this is what lottery tickets and such were invented for. But tonight I found a new one. I was at the grocery store tonight and got to witness a group of four (2 guys and 2 girls) probably in the early 20s. Definitely falling on the hillbilly side of the tracks dump what looked to be about $50 into one of these machine trying to win a $.50 stuffed parrot.



The best part was for the last $20, they were actually moving the object and a few times the crane picked it up only to see it fall. The anguish was just funny to watch...one dude even fell on the floor at one time he was so upset

My wife only plays that when she sees one ripe for the grabbing. I got a prize in the one and only try I took at one in Millington, TN just a few weeks ago. $1 for a stuffed animal was okay by me. But yep, once you spend more than $2, you are just making a donation to a "for profit enterprise", which is dumb!

IMHO it's all dumb. I'm with Doggg on this one. Kinda like trying to win a $2 stuffed animal at the fair and it costs you $30 to win it because your first prize is a $.10 necklace. You have to work you way up from there and it costs a fortune. That's why they're in that business. Well, that and they also fall on the hillbilly side of the tracks.

I assume you guys never visit Las Vegas or Casinos?

I don't like these "machines" although the last time I dropped $.50 in one, I was able to grab some cool little ball/stringy thing that my 6 y/o sister was fond of.

Are these people more stupid than those who choose to gamble? Or is it the fact they're lower income simply makes the dumb? Just wondering.

Stupid is as stupid does.

Poor is a state of mind, not a state of financial status. I have been broke a few times im my life, but never poor.

If one is broke financially, its usually a temporary situation. If one feels themselves poor, there is little hope until they change their self-assessment of worth.

I am not trying to be funny here, but rather that your financial condition has somewhat to do with your self-esteem.

Sure, there are those that have a handicap or other life-limiting capability, and that would not apply.

Poor and stupid have a tendency to go together. Low intelligence is not stupid. You can be below average IQ and make a good living. Stupid is thinking you can beat a rigged system.

figuring out a simple solution to beating a rigged system is what a handful of students from MIT did to the blackjack tables in Vegas,
a couple of them are still today earning money from that venture, except now legally,
i wouldn't call them stupid, perhaps i'd call them the exception, but not stupid


D-Rod, learn to blend in more (mandatory to their success) and that could be your calling?
they were your age when they cleared their first several million

Thought this was going to be a powerball or lottery thread - "Its a tax on stupid people..."

Rodney Carrington is the skee ball champion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZFmkphqAm0

(not family friendly language)

Spend $1900 for a whistle.

In a previous job I used to collect the coins from our pool tables in all the surrounding bars. Whenever I saw someone dump about $5 in a crane and come up empty I'd go over, unlock it and get them to pick a prize.

Unfortunately even if you do win a prize with first try the crane owner still makes a profit.

We are all either carnies or rubes. Niether one is very flattering when you think about it.

TEG's comment about his previous job reminded me of one I had when I was in college in the 60's. I worked one summer for a company that ran a fleet of Roach Coaches and vending machines. I drove a roach coach for awhile but then got "promoted" to running a vending machine cafeteria at a large GM plant.

There were about 150-200 machines in the lunch room that I was responsible for. I had to count everything that went in (and the total value) and at the end of the week I had to turn in that much money.

It didn't take me long to get real friendly with the guys who worked there. If they lost a buck in a machine I'd quickly replace it 'cause I didn't want them to get pi$$ed off at the machines and break them or stop using them. Most of the time if they lost a quarter or $.50 they wouldn't even bother to tell me.

By week's end I'd often have $25-$50 above what I had to turn in. I asked my boss what I should do with that and he said "You turn in the exact amount of the food you sold...no more, no less." That was a lot of money back then when I was making about $2/hour and it was like pennies from heaven.

Rubes? Carnies? I guess I was a carnie at that point!

If you beat a rigged system, you take the risk of being made an example. Besides, for every person that can actually beat the system. there are hundreds that just think they can. I beat the system once. The NCO club in Yongsan, Korea, had slots. I had two dollars to spare. Enough for a meal and $0.50 to play nickel slots. I hit the jackpot and made $20. Those days, that was enough for a tour of a few night clubs and the company of a sweet girl for the night. Stupid would have been to continue to play after I won. I have my dumb moments but I try not to be stupid.

Not trying to get off subject, but there are some interesting things that you see in the military, overseas. Every morning, exactly at the same time, every working girl in the Yongsan club district, would have their customers out the door. It was so well organized that by the time they got to within a block of the gate, all the soldiers would instinctively form up like they were on a parade ground. Considering that more than a hundred men made it to the gate in formation, it was very impressive.

Why is it anymore stupid for someone to play slots for a few hours and drop $100.00 then it is for us to burn it in gas? Y'all are forgetting the enjoyment factor. You don't play slots to win, you play for enjoyment and if you win it's a bonus. People do all kinds of things that seem a silly form of entertainment but if it's what they enjoy, so what. We are all making others rich with our guilty pleasures.

It's not the prize, but the thrill of the chase. Be it lotto, gambling in Vegas, or a stupid crane machine.

A little veer here... There is a pizza place called John's Incredible Pizza.. a buffet style place, with an arcade room. The typical stuff, drop tokens in a slot and try and knock a collection of tokens off people before you have have put in. Air hockey, skee ball, shooting gallery, etc. They all pay tickets. The more tickets you get, the 'bigger, better' the prize you buy. 4 tokens for a buck, or sometimes you can get a special where you get 35 bucks of tokes for 29 dollars. They give you a debit style card and choose how much you want at point of sale. Point of all this is... the admiral saw this RC battery Hummer she just had to have. 1700 tickets! That damned car cost us a good $100-150 for a toy they had in stock at K-mart for about $25! But is was a fun mother's day! Had the in-laws with us, and getting the car was just an added bonus.