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The rims aren’t the only thing that wouldn’t fly with NBA regulations: basketballs are often overinflated to give them an extra bounce, and Glenn Hester, a police officer from Georgia who specializes in carnival games fraud (he’s penned a book called Carnival Cop) says that “there may be netting or other items behind the rim designed to interfere with your depth perception.” 4. Even with a perfect shot, there’s only a half-inch margin of error for shooters. The basketball hoop rims on free throw booths at carnivals are probably enough to give LeBron James fits: They’re smaller than regulation hoops, and according to a 2011 Art of Manliness article, “bent into an oblong shape to appear larger in the front.” Bruce Walstad, an investigator of rigged carnival games, says the oval hoop is designed to make players lose. The reason the balloons are a rainbow of different colors isn’t just to make the booth more alluring-it’s a distraction technique, too. Dull darts (and often ones that are lighter to throw than store-bought darts) are often used in the game, and some carnival employees even heat the tips to make popping balloons more difficult.īut the balloons are equally deceptive: They might look ready to burst, but they’re usually inflated to just 30 percent of their full air capacity, making them tough to pop. BALLOON DART THROWīefore you step back and let that dart fly, remember you’re playing with what the house gives you. Here’s one more trick to watch for: If one bottle sits more jutted out than the rest (even by just half an inch, according to a Today Show hidden camera investigation), it absorbs the force of the ball from the others when you give it your best toss. Bottles stacked on the bottom are often filled with lead and weigh in at 10 pounds, and the softball you’re given puts an emphasis on soft-they may be filled with cork to make them lighter. It’s probably the most straightforward game on the midway: A carnival worker stacks three milk bottles in a pyramid, hands you a softball, and you cash in on your best Nolan Ryan impression, right? It’s not usually that simple. Here’s a look at five common fixes for midway games. Not all carnival games get rigged, but some stack the odds. The sights and smells of the carnival midway are nostalgically familiar: funnel cakes, carousel calliope music, and the sounds of hearts breaking when amusement park goers plunk down a few bucks to try to win the biggest stuffed animal in the place.
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