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Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

thehustle.co

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Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#351

Post by mschuster91 »

feintruled wrote: post #117
mschuster91 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having worked in casinos and actually owning a real, unrestricted gambling machine (for laughs, tbh): that's bullshit. Gambling works because there is always, always some machine that is paying out money. This one machine is sufficient to get all other patrons to throw more and more money at them. Sometimes all hell breaks loose and multiple or all machines pay out. The joke is that most gamblers won't cash out and g…

You mentioned owning an 'unrestricted' gambling machine - I've always wondered, do such machines have a setting to actually be fair (or I guess, totally random?) Or is it always a matter of payout percentages?

"Unrestricted" in that most second-hand gambling machines are switched to a "demo mode" which delivers unrealistic winning chances.

The situation with the modes is more complex in Germany:

- "real", licensed casinos can carry the big ass slot machines. These have very high limits, both in wins and losses, and can be centrally controlled by the casino.

- bars, "machine casinos" and other unlicensed venues carry the machines of the kind which I have. On these you can lose (aka pay in) no more than 80€/h, and win (aka pay out) no more than 500€/h. Which means: if you win e.g. 1000€, you'll have to hang around for 2 hours to withdraw your win. Machines based on the new rules (TR5) actually have even lower limits (80/400 loss/win). These are mandated to only collect a certain amount of money - only 33€/hour used should go as profits to the operator, the rest of the money paid in must be distributed to the gamblers over time ("long term").

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#352

Post by jon-wood »

Zetaphor wrote: post #256
braythwayt wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Way back in the day, I had a reinsurance company as a client. For those unfamiliar, reinsurance companies insure insurance companies. For example, they might insure a standard insurance company for automobile accidents, with a $1,000,000 deductible. So the retail insurance company handles payouts up to a million dollars, but when there's a really wild claim, the reinsurance company pays the insurance company for anyt…

Who insures the reinsurance company?

Bizarrely it’s sometimes another division of the same reinsurance company.

I work for an insurer and got talking with one of our pricing guys who told me about a case where one of the big multinationals had one division which was way under it’s predicted claims volume for the year, and another that was over. To rebalance the risk the US division ended up insuring the EU division.

Another story that night was about a reinsurer that through several departments taking on different risks ended up on the hook for a dockyard which caught fire catastrophically. And all the goods in that dockyard. And the boat which started the fire.

That evening led to my drunken catchphrase: “fucking insurance”, said ever more enthusiastically.

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#353

Post by bo1024 »

moftz wrote: post #137
TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an individual authenticating callers is difficult. I recently had someone claiming to be from the ATO (Australian Taxation Office) call and ask me to identify myself. Not surprising, my tax filing is overdue. I advised them as a security policy I do not give out PII to unauthenticated callers, asked for a reference number and a return phone number. The number I was given is not listed on the ATO website so I did n…

I've had my bank call me at work because I forgot to pay my credit card off the day after it was due. No callerid info, just a number. The woman on the phone didn't say who she was, who she was calling from, she just immediately asked me if this was blahblah. My work has been the subject of a bunch of scammers calling about financial services lately so I wasn't too keen on saying who I was. I kept asking her who she…

Funny cause on email this is a solved problem (from a technical standpoint not a social one); encryption and digital signatures are easy. And it would be so useful to those industries too.

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#354

Post by heartbreak »

FireBeyond wrote: post #336
bane wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I went to one to satisfy the same sort of morbid fascination as well. I really have to hand it to the sales people, it was one of the most incredible sales pitches I've ever seen. They shuttled us to one of their premier properties where they took us to a sales room and served us breakfast. After a few moments they had everybody gather around a large presentation screen and a salesman who spent the next hour not just…

This was a big scam on the Gold Coast in Australia in the 80s and 90s, and my parents milked it. First thing you need to know is that any major contract in Australia had a "72 hour cooling off period" in which you could cancel it with no redress or regress. Want a cheap holiday? Bring your kids to the Gold Coast, look up the best time share resort, Friday morning,sit through the spiel, sign on the line that is dotted…

I’m unfamiliar with Australian contract law, but damn that would be risky in the US (assuming you could even find a jurisdiction with a 72 hour cooling off period).

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#355

Post by bvinc »

jcelerier wrote: post #25

I've got a friend who actually won the car in the mall once. Not US though.

In the 90s my brother almost won a car. It was legit because he was part of the 10 finalists and the news media was there. They all drew keys out of a bag and tried to start the car until one of them started it. The key he drew didn't work.

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#356

Post by Max_aaa »

simonbyrne wrote: post #332
lostlogin wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are doing it wrong - socialise that risk. Here in New Zealand when a big insurer has something bad happen (eg an earthquake flattens a big city) you get bailed out by the government. Departing staff still got big payouts in that era too, so it doesn’t seem to impose any stringent criteria on companies too. AMI specifically. Sarcasm aplenty in this comment.

Even reinsurance has limits, and large earthquakes on major metropolitan centres are basically the one thing that will exceed them (floods can be bad too, but the risks are more predictable, and are often excluded from policies in high-risk areas). The only alternative to the "government backstop" is that insurers will refuse to write policies or will exclude earthquake risk (in which case the government may need to…

NZ does have the EQC.

https://www.eqc.govt.nz/

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#357

Post by Coincoin »

rootusrootus wrote: post #323
munificent wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it's worth spending money on any product that your spends a third of its life on and which can directly affect your health.

I have the same philosophy about office chairs.

My father used to tell me: "Don't skimp on your bed, your chair and your car tires."

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#358

Post by pnathan »

briandear wrote: post #262
god_bless_texas wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mattress Mack?

OT but worth mentioning.. He is one of the finest human beings to ever come out of Houston. A class act. He flew a bunch of vets on a private jet to the World Series just because. He also does a massive amount of charity that doesn’t make the headlines. During Harvey, as you know, he opened his furniture store as a shelter. A real gem of a person. He is also in his store, open to close, every day. (“I-45 North betwee…

Is there a decent write up? Sounds, from what you say, like a lucrative business with someone who has a decent set of ethics. It's always useful to read people's stories like that.

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#359

Post by mgr86 »

technofiend wrote: post #245
lysp wrote: post #215

About 30 years ago in Australia There was a competition at the local shopping centre. Spend $20 at any shop in the centre, show your receipt and you get a chance to win the displayed car. The chance involved folding a paper plane, and then trying to get it into the car through the sunroof. Which was only open a small crack. A friend of the family tried about 5 times over the day and never got close. They came back qu…

There's a furniture salesman here in Houston who makes heavy use of that sort of promotion. His latest if you spend $3,000 on a mattress and the Astros win the "2018 baseball final championship series" you'll be refunded the purchase price. Not sure why it's worded so formally; must be a legal thing.

Something like that was happening in New England this spring

"Buy anything at Jordan’s Furniture starting today and it will all be FREE, if the Red Sox pitch a No Hitter, home or away, after July 17th during the regular season. That is 64 games! There is an average of 3 ½ No Hitters pitched each year."[0]

[0] http://www.furnituretoday.com/article/551925-if-red-sox-pitc...

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#360

Post by fortythirteen »

MatthewWilkes wrote: post #15

Amusingly, the website this article is hosted in pops up a modal asking you to sign up to a mailing list with a low contrast dismiss button and saying "you can always unsubscribe". People in glass houses.

Ultimate hypocrisy is that their profit model is probably built around reselling their email list.
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