Rigged Carnival Games: Basketball Shott, Ring Toss
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If you're heading to a carnival to play games, expect to get played yourself. Not all is fair at the fairgrounds, even if the stakes are just an oversized teddy bear.
"It's not that every carnival game is rigged, but any can be, and many are," says Bill L. Howard, who's been investigating carnival games since 1978 and wrote Carnival Fraud 101, a guidebook
for law enforcement officers on tricks of the trade.
"Even if you manage to win the big prize, what you usually get is a stuffed animal ... that's often filled with confetti, not stuffing. You're better off buying your grandkids something
that's better quality at Walmart for a fraction of the money you'll lose to these guys."
Here's how you're kept from winning — even that bear — in seven common "games of skill."
1. The Milk Bottle Pyramid
Knock them all over and win a prize, promises the barker. The reality: Bottom pins can be filled with lead, making them as heavy as 10 pounds each. The softballs you throw may be filled with
cork to make them lighter than regulation balls. And the bottles may be stacked against a backdrop curtain that helps prevent them from falling.