A wide-eyed child presses his nose against the clear glass. He imagines that a toy inside will soon be his. It looks so simple. Just grab the prize with the shiny silver claw and drop it into the open chute.
The decades-old claw game is a staple at amusement parks, movie theaters, shopping malls, and grocery stores. But how often does anyone really win?
One New Jersey lawmaker asked that question. He wants his state to consider more oversight of the game. Critics say the game is easy to rig—making it more governed by chance than by skill. They say machine operators can control the strength of the joystick-controlled claw. Making the claw too weak renders prizes unachievable—no matter how many times a user feeds dollar bills into the game.
Game owners dispute the criticism. They say they wouldn’t make it impossible to win. If they did, people would quit playing. But most players know they won’t win—or at least, not often. The point of the game is to make money for owners. Still, the challenge of trying makes it fun, and many repeat players say they have won something. It’s usually just a small toy, and not the phones or GoPro cameras that most try fruitlessly to grab and hold with the claw.
New Jersey State Senator Nicholas Scutari says the claw games target children in particular. Youngsters think they can easily snatch a big prize. Senator Scutari has introduced legislation calling for more oversight of the games. He proposes restrictions to the programming of the machines so that players have reasonable odds of holding onto a prize if they are skillful enough to grab one.
“Difficult is one thing,” says Scutari. “Completely rigged is another. We just want to make sure it’s a level playing field.”
Jeremy Hambly agrees. He is such a fan of the claw game that he’s become something of an expert. His ClawStruck YouTube channel explains how many machines work—and how they can be manipulated by owners to guarantee a certain profit level. Hambly says operators should publicly post the odds of winning on their machines.
“I don’t want people to not play claw machines,” Hambly says. “I want them to play the right ones, because a fairly set claw machine is skill-based and is one of the purest forms of fun out there.”
