Casino - Claw Game for the bundles of money

[dltvermont]

The setup for the claw machines is right online. Its set by the casino to allow someone to win or not

[CruiserLucas]

Saw someone win $100 on Sunshine in December. First time I've seen it. 

 

Edit/addition: Not the claw machine on a ship, but on the cord cutting game I've won a prize in an arcade. In high school, for my first iPod Touch 🤣

Edited August 18, 2022 by CruiserLucas

[mrschrod]

Had a friend who has won it numerous times on the ship, so I can say that it is possible

[auburn77]

4 hours ago, iria64 said:

I saw a video on the keyhole game once... this game may be rigged even more than the claw game.  Basically, the machine is programmed to let 1 win per so many tries and no matter how good you are stopping the key you are always going to just miss.  There is no chance to these machines, if it is not ready to payout you will not win.

That is exactly why I don't play them. I never saw more than one person on the same cruise win anything on one. 

[cmukid87]

My friend got a $100 bundle on his first try years ago.  He spent it all trying to get another bundle.  I stay away from them.

[TerReuv]

18 hours ago, psikic said:

We've won a $100 bundle about 5 times on three cruises.  There are two secrets to winning:  first, we hang around the machine on a sea day evening and let the drunk people fill the machine with money, them being too drunk to operate the machine properly, and then when they give up and walk away my wife and I will play it.  At that point the machine has taken in enough money that the win ratio will allow it to pay out, and it can be operated as a game of skill and not just luck.  Second, one person stands on the side of the machine as the other person operates the controls and the spotter can help the operator align the claw in one direction while the operator can align the claw in the other direction.  With practice, if the machine has earned enough to start paying out, you can win pretty easily.

 

Funny that you mention the trick of someone standing on the side.  Back in the day, I figured that out with the claw machines that had all the stuffed toys, etc.  Until you look at it from the side, you don't realize how much you are off.  

 

Curious as to how long or how many people it seemed like it took before you played the machine and won? Did you have to sit there for long?

[ldubs]

48 minutes ago, TerReuv said:

 

Funny that you mention the trick of someone standing on the side.  Back in the day, I figured that out with the claw machines that had all the stuffed toys, etc.  Until you look at it from the side, you don't realize how much you are off.  

 

 

 

Yes, that is exactly right. Years ago I think my son and I got stuffed toys for every small kid in the family restnt.  Word spread and parents were donating coins to us.   It was awesome (I guess small things make me happy).  

[sunonfire]

21 hours ago, cruisingguy007 said:

 

Makes you wonder how much he spent doing it, there is a tendency for gamblers to have selective recall and overemphasize their wins, while at the same time, minimizing/trivializing loses. "I hit for 5K the last trip" while failing to mention that they were down way more than 5K already lol. I've seen folks sit at those claw machines for long periods of time feeding them over the course of a cruise. 

Actually he was only there for about 5 minutes so at the time he won. Who knows how many other attempts. He certainly entertained us.

[TerReuv]

1 minute ago, ldubs said:

 

Yes, that is exactly right. Years ago I think my son and I got stuffed toys for every small kid in the family restnt.  Word spread and parents were donating coins to us.   It was awesome (I guess small things make me happy).  

 

Same here.  Everyone loved it that I could always get something.  Of course, there wasn't a timer then so I could take my time and look on the side myself if I didn't have a helper. 

 

I helped my hubby and thought he had a stack, but it fell.  Never thought about it being set for a specific amount of money before you even had a chance.  

[psikic]

On 8/18/2022 at 1:32 PM, TerReuv said:

 

Curious as to how long or how many people it seemed like it took before you played the machine and won? Did you have to sit there for long?

 

We would usually go in the late evening, around 10:00 PM.  It was fun to watch for about half an our or more as the drunk people playing the machine can get very "entertaining".  Eventually they do give up or run out of money, and that is when you sit down and start playing.  For every $100 or so we won we typically would spend $20-30 to get it, so no it is not a big money maker, but to get half an hour of entertainment for $30 even if you don't win is worth it in my book.

[mirglip69]

On 8/17/2022 at 12:37 PM, Super27 said:

I've grabbed a $100 bundle on two different occasions.

Same here.

[Wennfred]

Suckers bet with the plastic wrapping but I did see a dude pull a pack out of the machine, who knows how much he put in.

[Elaine5715]

Seen it happen a few dozen times.  Cracks me up every time I watch a "team" of guys position themselves around the machine and call out instructions to the operator fail time after time and then a young woman walks up, tries once and drops a bundle.  

[Joebucks]

On 8/17/2022 at 12:28 PM, cruisingguy007 said:

Those machines are a sucker bet

 

Welcome to the whole casino

[Saint Greg]

I saw a guy win it twice in one night. $100 both times. He spent a good bit of the first 100 winning the second 100 though. 

[cruisingguy007]

7 hours ago, Joebucks said:

 

Welcome to the whole casino

 

Disagree, Carnival runs a great craps game, one of the best around left IMO. You just have to watch the dealers and make sure you police your own game and they pay you on all your bets. I've sworn I missed a few but it's also my bad as well. Generally, they do a good job but with a lively crowd it can get clustery. Just as good as Reno and old time Vegas or any of the smaller locals NV joints, actually, it reminds me of the table at Best Western Casino Royale in Vegas, best table on the strip IMO. Blackjack is also good, or was anyway, less so now with minimums. Craps is still the best bet on a Carnival ship for an average guy/gal trying to have a chance to win.  

[Pellaz]

On 8/18/2022 at 10:59 AM, dltvermont said:

The setup for the claw machines is right online. Its set by the casino to allow someone to win or not

 

Yep, this is exactly how I thought it worked.    Not only do you have to position the claw in the right spot, but per the second row, the machine is set to only allow enough lifting strength every so often.  

 

On 8/17/2022 at 1:36 PM, auburn77 said:

Never seen anyone win on that one. However, I have seen several win on the keyhole game.

I've never tried either.

 

You have seen something I have NEVER seen, then.  

 

On 8/17/2022 at 8:21 PM, EllieinNJ said:

Someone on FB said they just won a $500 packet.  They took it to the service desk to pay off some charges.  When they unwrapped it it only had $250 in it.  If they had unwrapped it when they were alone they couldn't prove it was short.  The service desk apologized and credited them the full $500.

 

Yes, this might be a standard practice.  And it might not be that sinister. 

 

On Sunrise last February I was heading up to bed on the last night but decided to spend $10 in the "Cash Vault" game -- this is the one where the "S" slides across from left to right and you have to try to get it through the narrow slot.  On my fourth attempt...it slid right on through!   

My first thought was "People NEVER win this.  Am I in trouble?   But the big cube of cash marked $2,500 fell into the hopper at the bottom.  

Now I'm thinking "What do I do now?  Just...stroll off with it?"    

But I realized that I had NO room for that giant cube in my carry-on; my suitcase was already down on Deck 0.   So I went to the casino cage...and I'm glad I did.  

Turns out that big ol' cash cube only has $1,000 in dollar bills in it.  They showed me that, had I opened it, I'd have seen a card inside that says that, and to bring it to the cage for full payout.  

After filling in the usual tax forms I finally got 25 $100 bills.  

 

If I had just "strolled off with it" I'm sure they'd have found me using facial recognition and stopped me from debarking, since even $1,000 is required to be reported to the IRS.  😄  

 

 

On 8/18/2022 at 9:24 AM, iria64 said:

I saw a video on the keyhole game once... this game may be rigged even more than the claw game.  Basically, the machine is programmed to let 1 win per so many tries and no matter how good you are stopping the key you are always going to just miss.  There is no chance to these machines, if it is not ready to payout you will not win.

 

I'm sure the Cash Vault machine is the same way.   I just happened to get very lucky...and it paid for my cruise twice over.  

[Bollycats]

I've seen this machine before but never played it. Now I kind of want to! How much is it per try?

[ShakyBeef]

26 minutes ago, Bollycats said:

I've seen this machine before but never played it. Now I kind of want to! How much is it per try?

$1

 

ETA: Last cruise was January 2020, so maybe my information is old.  Hopefully someone having cruised more recently can confirm or correct.

Edited August 22, 2022 by ShakyBeef

[surfergirl15]

Won 3 times in one night on Carnival Horizon!

[Tiger0613]

I didn't see it happen, but I saw someone standing next to the claw machine unwrapping a $100 bundle on the Radiance on the first day(8/29/22) before sail away.

[ledges1]

My son-in-law won two packs on the Breeze back in Jan 2019. He also has his crane operators license by trade. Do not know if that helped.

[LoungingMcCoy]

My dad won a $100 bundle on the claw machine once.  He never opened it.  It is proudly displayed on the desk in his office.

 

I don't play casino machines, but he once gave me a few dollars to try the key machine.  I guess that since I play video games he thought my reflexes would come in handy.  I could tell fairly quickly how it was rigged.  Maybe rigged isn't the right word, but you know what I mean.  I didn't win anything but it was interesting figuring out how it worked.

[asalligo]

Yes, I personally saw someone win a stack of cash from this machine. It only pays out after a certain number of people have tried though. Like most game machines, it is unwinnable until it has taken in it's required level of profit, then it will allow a win, so you want to play after many other people have. They reset it every so often and before each cruise. 

 

 

 

[bowlinmoe]

The coin pusher machine is where the REAL money’s at. Cha-Ching.