Your childhood is a lie: claw machines are rigged

Have you ever felt disappointed in yourself after many, many failed attempts at the claw machine? Do you still dream about that one time the claw grabbed the stuffed bear, pulling it to safety, only to drop it at the very last second? Do you carry these disappointments and insecurities with you to this day, and do they haunt you in every facet of your life?

If so, this latest news from Vox may come as a relief: apparently, these machines are rigged to produce this disappointment. It’s not you! You’re free!

According to a BMI Gaming Manual, proprietors of the machine can tune the claw so it operates at full strength once every 23 games. That would create a profit margin of 50 percent. Which is just….man—that’s some cold-blooded capitalism right there.

Here’s a video showing how this evil, evil scheme operates:

Michael Rosen is a reporter for Fusion based out of Oakland.