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Sega sued for ‘rigged’ arcade machine

polygon.com

61–70 of 238 posts

Re: Sega sued for ‘rigged’ arcade machine

#61
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked on a redemption device a long time ago, one of those "stop the lights" game for a large manufacturer. There were a few jurisdictions, Iowa and New Jersey come to mind, that were already aware of the nature of these machines and required the manufacturers to have their software audited and validated by (state approved) third-party gaming labs identical to what the slot machine companies do when getting code a…

On the same note could you name any of the third party labs? I'm interested in the topic.

GLI and BMM are the two main ones.

https://bmm.com/

Re: Sega sued for ‘rigged’ arcade machine

#62

Reminds me of this one: https://youtu.be/vXBfwgwT1nQ Guy builds a robot to time pressing the button to get the light to land on the winning sections and demonstrates it is not skill but a random number generator.

> https://youtu.be/vXBfwgwT1nQ

Ah, Tcl/Tk on a phone in the wild!

Re: Sega sued for ‘rigged’ arcade machine

#63
Oh, I thought this was known. I'm not even joking... A few years ago, I was at a local comic shop, and I watched someone (a kid) play the machine and appear to get a "perfect" shot, key went exactly into the fucking hole... but then it just pulled back. No prize! I was stunned when the kid asked an employee essentially "WTF?" and the employee replied "there's a chance the key may not turn even though it's lined up." So... it's a game of luck and not a game of skill. All I could think was "doesn't that make it straight up gambling then?" Who would be liable for changing the mode of operation? Regardless, it's fucking sketchy and all around pretty awful to take advantage of people like this... $5 million is a bullshit fine for literally stealing from kids. I still feel bad for that kid, it was like a Nintendo Switch or something fucking cool he, IMHO, had stolen from him...

Re: Sega sued for ‘rigged’ arcade machine

#64
post #6

Good. These covert casino machines are a blight , and all of them should be banned and the proprietors prosecuted.

I wouldn't mind if all gambling was illegial in the USA, including the lottery.

The problem with these machines isn't just that they're gambling. It's that they try hard to make you think they're not.

Re: Sega sued for ‘rigged’ arcade machine

#65
post #6

Good. These covert casino machines are a blight , and all of them should be banned and the proprietors prosecuted.

I wouldn't mind if all gambling was illegial in the USA, including the lottery.

The last time I was in Atlantic City it was quite depressing. I saw some desperate drunk get thrown out after he put his fist through one of the game machine screens.

It's the regulated kind that always seems like a sleazy stealth tax on the poor. I'm okay with people playing poker privately for stakes, it's the casinos that I can't stand.

Re: Sega sued for ‘rigged’ arcade machine

#66

At least in Japan for their UFO Catcher and similar games, it's still pretty fun because you tend to be able to get childhood memory goods (pokemon/digimon/etc. stuffed animals). Plus while there can be a rigged factor to the machines, you can still pick up some mechanics that help you shortcut to getting the item to drop. Of course it costs money and you don't always "win" but if you can pick up the pattern, it does…

What’s ironic is that when I visited Tokyo a couple years ago I didn’t play any of these games because I assumed they were rigged like in the US. Now that I know the payouts are more favorable maybe I will give them a try next time

Re: Sega sued for ‘rigged’ arcade machine

#67

You know the horribly irony is that wagering machines that are 100% skill based are illegal. The only exception, I've seen "The Fishing Game" in a texas bar. It's a 2D game where you shoot fish in a pool table like screen. Bullets cost money, fish death pays out.

I don't think the "Fish game" is skill based exactly--from what I understand the end payout depends largely on what fish the inner workings of the game decides to throw your way

Re: Sega sued for ‘rigged’ arcade machine

#68
post #57

I don’t understand how anyone can see a game like this and not immediately know it’s not about skill. If it was about skill the prices would be sub-$1 knick-knacks.

Children.

Just last week my son told me they tried Key Master at a bowling alley. I told him those games all have switches to control the win rate. He didn't believe/understand me, so it was nice to have screenshots of the manual literally saying "these are the switches that control the win rate".

Re: Sega sued for ‘rigged’ arcade machine

#69

At least in Japan for their UFO Catcher and similar games, it's still pretty fun because you tend to be able to get childhood memory goods (pokemon/digimon/etc. stuffed animals). Plus while there can be a rigged factor to the machines, you can still pick up some mechanics that help you shortcut to getting the item to drop. Of course it costs money and you don't always "win" but if you can pick up the pattern, it does…

You can also pull the gaijin card and complain to the staff that the setup is too difficult, and they'll rearrange it to make it easier.

Re: Sega sued for ‘rigged’ arcade machine

#70
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does that matter? Is everyone suppose to be aware of this guy?

What? You aren't familiar with one random guy on the internet that maybe makes some videos in a very niche market that you may have never even heard of before? What? Do you have some sort of life of something preventing from crawling every single crevice on the interwebs?

I recognized the guy (and the video, which I likely had already seen), but his name wouldn't mean anything to me
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