Are midway games rigged? They certainly aren't easy, say players

Cost of Living4:52Are carnival games just for suckers?

Emerson Cook believed she had a chance at winning the big prize at the Calgary Stampede.

At the age of 8, she felt confident she could hang from a chin-up bar for two minutes. Her parents had a bar just like it at home, and she had spent the last year practicing, so how hard could it be? Plus, she could win a big stuffed animal. 

But when she grabbed onto the metal bar, all set for her two minutes of glory, she came to the startling realization that the rules had changed. 

The bars spun. And after 15 seconds, she fell. 

"I was like, 'It spun, I didn't know it spun,'" said Emerson, who is now 12. "I was, like, crying. I was really upset. Cause it was like, everybody was watching, everybody is staring at you."

Cook was the victim of a midway game that was more challenging than it appeared. And with the Calgary Stampede underway, and many more fairs set for the next few months across Canada, she likely won't be the last. 

And while many people say these games are rigged, or at least, not as fair as they might seem, operators argue all games are winnable, and there are some tricks to put your best foot forward. 

Difficult or fraudulent?

There are three types of carnival games. There are games of chance, games of skill, and games that mix the two. 

For example, Cook's Hang Time challenge is a game of skill — and a deceptively hard one at that. The pick-a-duck race game or the claw game are games of chance. The ring toss game, where you have to get a ring on top of a bottle, is a bit of both.

And Matt Magnone has played a lot of them. 

He runs a YouTube channel called Arcade Matt out of Ambridge, Pa., where he makes videos playing everything from arcade games to midway competitions. 

But he says there's no question that operators tilt the odds in their favour. For example, he says, in a game that involves shooting a basketball through a hoop, you might need more skills than an NBA star.

Oftentimes, he says, the actual hoop is smaller than regulation, and the basketballs are given extra air so they bounce everywhere. A park near his home actually does have a sign letting people know it isn't a regulation basketball hoop. 

"It's more of like an oval than a circle. So it's just designed to where the average person isn't gonna be able to figure it out the first time or even maybe the 10th time," said Magnone.

Then there's the game where you have to knock over a stack of bottles. There, he says, the bottom bottle will often be weighted to make sure they don't easily fall over. 

"So in theory, you can win every time. Now the games are designed to where, you know, I guess it's more of kind of like a casino, right?" said Magnone. 

"The games are set up to a certain difficulty to where the average person isn't gonna be able to win it every time."

That's how Cook felt about the hanging bar challenge. There were no signs telling her that it moved, and it wasn't clear from watching the challengers ahead of her. 

"It said just, 'Bar, hold on for two minutes.' It didn't say, like, if it was spinning or not. Like, you couldn't tell," said Cook. 

Lots of stuffies

These games are money makers for midway companies. Six Flags, which owns 42 amusement parks, such as Canada's Wonderland in Ontario and La Ronde in Quebec, brought in around $900 million in revenue last year from food, merchandise, and games.

And while there is no doubt these games are designed with the intention to make money, Greg "Scooter" Korek says they are certainly winnable. 

Korek is the vice president of client services for North American Midway Entertainment, which puts on the Calgary Stampede along with many other fairs and festivals across North America. He says nearly 1.4 million people visited the Calgary Stampede last year, and Korek says games are an important part of that operation. 

"Are our games winnable? You bet," said Korek. "Our games do make money for us, but we're giving away a lot of prizes as we go along." 

He says that at the Calgary Stampede, they expect to give away 35 tractor-trailer loads of stuffed animals.

"We could fill out this Saddledome with stuffed animals for 16 games," said Korek. 

And he says that while some games are harder to win, there is a reward for that: bigger prizes. 

Tips and tricks

Magnone says there are ways you can tip the odds back in your favour. In the game where you have to knock over the bottom bottles, for instance, always go for the bottom row, he says. 

You can watch how-to videos for specific popular games to learn how they work before you play them, and you can also stand by a game at a fair to see how those who win are successful. 

Practicing, however, means that —unless you build the game at home — you have to spend money at the midway.

But even with those strategies, don't expect to dominate. 

"They are set up so difficult to where, yeah, you might get one person that might see a tip and trick, but still, it's gonna take a lot of practise to get it dialled in and get the technique," said Magnone. 

Even if you do get really good, you likely won't win unlimited giant stuffies. Magnone says many places will put a limit on how many times you can win before you get cut off. 

But Emerson Cook hasn't reached that point yet. After her disappointing first attempt, she started training correctly. She made it so her bar at home moved like the one at the fair, and she practiced and practiced. 

"I still haven't won it yet," said Cook, reflecting on her 2024 attempt. "It's pretty tricky to do. Like, it's not that simple."

Cook went back to the Stampede this year for another attempt, but were unable to find the game. But Cook hopes to go back next year and continue her quest to be Hang Time champion and walk away with one of those giant stuffies.