Carnival Games Scams | Compilation | The Real Hustle 

The biggest carnival scam is?? The instant you walk through the entrance gate!!

20 yrs ago me and my brother saw an ad in the paper to go work for the carnival. We went and I got the put up/take down the tent job for $20 and he got the walk around from 7pm-midnight for $20. He didn't even get to keep the bear they gave him to carry around. And I had to return on the last day of the carnival to get the other $10(they paid half to put up, and the other half to take down.) We both spent the money at the carnival, even my $10 went to drinks afterwards. Needless to say, we've never worked for the carnival again.

The one thing I learnt from this video is that the audio editor needs to be sacked.

This has been an issue for so long that an episode of The Andy Griffith show covered it in the early 1960's.

As Barnum said - _"There's a sucker born every minute."_

My mom told me she went to the fair last weed and, a 6 year old girl was playing the dart/balloon game. She threw one, 'pop'. Second try, 'pop'. Third dart, 'pop' 'pop' 'pop'. Kid hit 5 ballons with 3 darts. She said everybody lost it and the workers face was priceless.

I worked the three milk bottles back in the day. Also the red spot, fluffy dolls and the break a bottle. They all could be won if you could throw a ball

I worked the carnival stalls for 21 years. Then one day I was fired for getting freeky with the lion tamer. I returned the next day as a guest, and since I knew all the tricks, won a ton of big stuffed animals. I got the last laugh

I'll say it: don't play these games. I'd rather leave my drink unattended around Bill Cosby than go somewhere where I know I'm being scammed.

Even if you do win at these games, most of the time the prizes are not even worth what you paid to play the game. Like paying 5 dollars to pop a ballon. The ones I saw it was pretty much impossible not to pop a balloon. You “win” a stuffed animal that costs 25 cents.

I found the biggest RIP off is the price of food and drinks

When the guy says i m gonna give u a free attempt, u can insist on paying for that same attempt

I usually stick to games where I'm against other players rather than the house.

I was banned from the throwing at tins game before I bankrupt the stall, I have a good throw and aim! Even parents were giving me money to play for them and I got 3 massive toys for kids and 2 car loads for y self before I was banned lol

Its never about the prize. Its about fulfilling the joy of achieving the win of the challenge

Back in the early 90s, my then-gf had a distant cousin who was an old-school carny; she and her husband ran some kind of ring toss booth. When my gf heard that her cousin would be at the state fair that year, we decided to go on a lark. The cousin actually got me to carry around this gigantic stuffed panda on my shoulders and tell anyone who asked where I "won" it. Now, at that time, my gf and I were in our early 20s looked like the kind of people you'd see at a Depeche Mode concert, while her cousin was in her 40s and just had that tough carny demeanor, so it didn't look like there was any connection between us, all in all making for a pretty good scam. So now I can add "carnival shill" to my resume. It's funny though: when we first met, the cousin explained to me exactly how her game was crooked as though discussing the previous day's weather. I'm trying to remember across decades, but I think that the holes in the rings weren't actually large enough for the pegs to go through, though it looked like they should.

Those prizes are junk but I still play even though I know it's a scam lol

I am really good at archery, but in fairy game all arrows went to the left side of the target, and went randomly when I tried to correct to the right. I checked the arrows and they are balanced. My guess: the arrows are slightly bent and moving along the bow makes them turn left. When correcting to the right, the diagonal is more pronounced and they bounce on the bow side.

To get an odd number you need an odd number. There was a game that Pepsi did many years ago where you would get bottle caps with numbers and had to add them to get 21--nobody ever won because we never found any odds but probably had every even 2 to 20

Lost about 50 bucks in the late '70s went around the carnival till I found a couple of cops., Brought them over to the game. Then told the cops I wanted to file a report... The carnival manager gave me my money back

I remember the quarters being pushed through the glass. Most of them went on the side and dropped for the house. Alot of people got hooked immediately

I didn't know the balloon dart game is rigged, when i played it there was balloons fully inflated and alot of em. I was popping em like crazy they gave me a free play. At the end i won a giant Pikachu

Just a shame that schools don't tell people the risks on scams like this!

There is a scene in the 1942 film Pride of the Yankees. Lou Gehrig (played by Gary Cooper) takes her girl/wife to a carnival and tries to hit the bell via a sledge hammer. He cannot, but a little guy steps up and does it with ease. The Iron Horse was hooked. Although in the movie he comes home with all the prizes. Again that was in the movie.

5:37 Awww. That's what every man lives for. Admiration from his honey for an achievement.

I can tell you from experience that the player's attitude most often determines the outcome of the game. If you come up cocky or with an attitude, you can forget your winning odds. Back in my youth, I ran a few games for a company that will remain anonymous. On the first and last day of the carnival, you have the best odds of winning. The first day because you will do a great deal of free marketing for the carnival. The last day you'll likely win because that will be less to pack up for the game operator. I once stripped many "tough guys" of all the cash in their wallets/pockets just playing mind games with them on a game that wasn't even rigged. I'd even set up the bottles to make it easier for them. Then I'd lay on the pressure by making a spectacle of "the guy that was about to win the giant prize for his girl" etc. They'd cave every time. Their throws would seriously be farther off than their initial throw. On the other hand, I once had a young man play my game and he was so handicapped that he could barely throw a ball. Wouldn't you know he won the giant prize on his second throw? Not because he hit even a single bottle, but because of all the guys on the midway, he deserved it the most. I had to go on break after and collect myself. Handing that giant red bulldog to such a smile was one of the best moment's I'd ever experienced as a "Carny". I'll keep that memory for the rest of my days.

I won the bb machine gun game twice. One of my proudest achievements.

Have ever wondered about the stuffing in these prizes? Sometime it greasy from the vermaldahyde that was used to clean the cigarette butts that were recycled.

When I was a kid the scammers would offer to let me win...as long as I carried the prize around and told everyone where I got it. I didnt take the offer.

I'll tell you who doesn't give you a chance to win... The government.

Its called sticking when you walk through the crowd with big items and tell people that you won them. I worked for Harry the hat who owned a few booths. One was a electronics booth with a spin wheel. I worked a fiesta in Brooklyn NY. I was sticking for Harry one night and got him alot of business . The second night he asked me to go out again ! This time people followed me saying i was doing the same the night before. They got rowdy so i went back to Harries booth and dropped his junk on the counter. He was mad i brought the angry crowd to his booth ! Told him i quit and got out of dodge ! !

I won the raffle at the state fair around 1955 and got a rod and reel. Found out later Daddy paid the guy to call my ticket. Haven’t thought about that in 60 years but it seems like yesterday.

When I was an child, I won a racetrack with tiny cars....great win.

I knew an old timer that worked a carnival back in the '50's. He told me how the ring the bell was rigged. Depending on where the guy running it was standing the cable would be tight allowing the weight to go all the way up to ring the bell or slack so the weight wouldn't go up.

Some years ago I actually did win the big prize, but maybe things were different then. I don't know if there's any .22 caliber shooting galleries anymore, but back then there were. It was a moving duck game where the duck targets ran across on a chain. I studied it for a while, got the timing down, etc. You see, I was a state level shooting competitor and had actually won the state championship around that time. I did win the big bear by shooting all the ducks. Having no use for such a prize so I gave it to a young kid who was with the family who had been watching. What was the point then, you might ask? I simply love shooting in a competitive environment including just challenging myself. I went in knowing I wouldn't keep the prize if I won. It's never truly guaranteed after all that people of that ability level will always be the best on any given day.

Turn down the background music

Biggest con is those ones with the prizes inside a container and you have to operate a grab claw to simply pick one up.............. but the claws do NOT close enough to take the weight of ANY "prize" inside.

You know what another scam is. When people convert these super old videotapes into digital something goes wrong with the audio file because the background music is always so loud that you can't hear the dialog.

So, if I want to play balloon pop, I take my dart sharpening tool, easy win

For the cans one, I have good aim.. but my response trick is to go all the way to one side so you are basically hitting them edge on - makes it much easier but the distance is greater.

6:02 "Thank you for your insights on the game. But, one last question, sir. WTF did you do to your face?"

I thought the commentary was the singer of the background music...

The ticket bucket- I will open them as I pick them thanks

Years ago I used to frequent Las Vegas and I limited myself to a $20.00 loss per day. Sometimes I would come out a few hundred dollars ahead by the end of the day, but I never lost more than the original $20.00. Sometimes I could gamble all day on that twenty dollars, winning and loosing. One time I lost the original $20.00 the first fifteen minutes of my day..... and I kept to my plan. That was the end of my gimbaling for that day. I looked at that $20.00 as paying for entertainment..... and I might win something also. Same with the carnival games. I have a few that I like to play and look at it as entertainment money... and sometimes I actually win, but most of the time not. I like trying to shoot out the paper star with a hundred BB's. I've never one that one and only play it once for the evening... win or lose. Then there's the one where you aim a squirt gun that shoots a steady stream of water at the clowns nose. As long as you are hitting the clowns nose a balloon (your balloon) is filling up with air along with about five to ten other players that are competing with you. The goal is to get your balloon to burst open before any of the others and then you win. The others lose. The trick to winning on that one is the watch the others play first and watch which balloons are breaking, because those are the ones being replaced with new unused and unstretched balloons. Those are the balloons that are more likely to break than the old ones that have been stretched over and over again.

Sooooooooo.......you're saying carnival games are rigged? As a long time denizen of the boardwalk in Seaside Heights NJ, this SHOCKS me....🙂

Many years ago, I entered a contest which involved tossing softballs inside jugs to win. Tossing in all 3 balls won you a large stuffed animal; tossing in 2 of the 3 won you a smaller stuffed animal. Well, I made the first shot, missed the second ... then made an effort to put a lot of arc on my last shot, tossing it higher in the air. It clunked right in! It was an adorable little prize; an allegator wearing a shirt with a picture of a man on it (the opposite of a "preppy")! I still have my prize to this day; I rarely win at contests. I'd like to think that game wasn't rigged so few people could win. Isn't it better not to rig it? The joy of winning gives people a wonderful memory, and that is the best advertisement to bring more people to the table.

It took over 30 years to finally figure out why the little rectangle mirrors with favorite band name inserted were so small. I'm like these things are useless! you cant even see your whole face.. lol

I came for the thumbnail. Yes, you heard that right.

Jess could sell me anything.

In 1992 at age 16 I was a carny for a short time. Learned a lot in just one month traveling with them..js

The fair I worked on used to fix the rifles so the cork went out of the gun at a ridiculous angle. Nobody ever one anything!

Shenanigans! I declare shenanigans on these people lol

Why is youtube music louder than the voices? It seems so common.

All I learned about these scams I learned from the Andy Griffith show. Opie wanted to win his paw an electric razor and the sight was bent on the rifles.

In a. Lot of counties they have officer watching and checking all the games. But there still harder than they look. I've seen carnnys locked up for different violations.

When I was made redundant from a job in the 1980s, we were given the opportunity to take anything that was useful; I opted for the canteen fruit machine, which had been broken for some time. I managed to fix it. The reason why it was broken was that there was a switch inside designed to reduce the pay-out; there was also a broken switch that reported the tubes inside the machine to be empty, but I counted £60 of 50 pence coins still in the machine, we threw a lot of money in that machine with no real pay-out, so a nice refund

I was at the Arizona state fair with a girlfriend back in the early 80's. I saw one of those booths where you could win a large stuffed animal. They were sitting on the floor with flat, glass plates sitting on top of their heads. The object was to throw a quarter and hope it lands on the plate. Well I had figured something out on the spot. Number 1, lick the quarter. Number 2, throw it flat like a spinning Frisbee. It worked after 4-5 tries. I was told to move on after winning her the giant stuffed animal.

I won a big stuff bear at the midway in Point Pleasant, New Jersey one summer. I was actually moving into my house and sanding the floors so I left the bear at my parents' house. When I was away one of their neighbors came, with her 4 year old daughter, and the girl couldn't keep her eyes off MY BEAR! You guessed it, my mom gave it to her. Oh well, easy come, easy go.

I only do the darts, with very little loft. And with straight forward force. This counteracts the blunt tips. Course I play darts in two leagues. So, I put my thumb on the tips.

Some of the fairs by me people win certain games almost every time. The trick is you will spend $5 and get like 20 rings to toss. Almost everyone lands at least one ring. The prize you win a $0.50 pocket knife. So you get the prize but you spent much more than the knife costs.

I like the little dance she does at the balloon stall..Probably thinking about the Free Chinese Takeaway at the end of the shift 😉

In the US the local police inspect these games before the fair opens. If they find something amiss, they shut down the entire fair.

3:36 My goodness, keep the camera there!

I noticed 2 guys winning at the dime throwin game. They weren't just throwing and winning, they were were tossing to specific glasses and winning sets of glasses, and dishes that matched. I watched for a while and then said if you guys are so good, let's go to the basketball game and win the gigantic dogs. My son and I left the Fair carrying 2 gigantic dogs. The guys were basketball coaches and were somewhat juiced up on something if you know what I mean. P.S. those dogs took up a lot of space.

I threatened to kick a carney's ass at the NJ state fair in my younger, more angry days and drew a small crowd. I walked away with the prize. LOL

I've won the can pyramid one a couple of times, threw the ball really hard

I have to admit I an in my 50s and been to fairs and side shows all over the world but I have never seen a 'hook a peg' stall

I went to an amusement park when I was a teenager. The game I played was shooting the targets. When the girl was loading the ammo into the rifle, I noticed one maybe two rounds were different (blanks). I'm a good shot with a rifle and when I shot and didn't hit the target, my next shot was in the water just to see if the rifle was shooting anything or not. It did shoot the water, but I knew they were cheating at the game by using blank rounds.

Top of the range MP3 player! Be still my beating heart.

This is completely unrelated to anything in this video. But this con has always puzzled me and I fell for it a few times. Do people from the UK remember back in the early to mid 90's when you would go abroad on holiday to places like Cyprus, Turkey, Benidorm etc and you would go in a supermarket/shop over there and they would sell all the latest movies that were just out at the cinema on pirate VHS tapes with fake covers to make it look legit ( this is back in the days when it took 2/3 years for a movie to get from the cinema to rent on VHS) Just say you picked 4 or 5 films to buy, the shop keepers would take the videos out of the cases you had picked, pop them in a machine and the picture would be crystal clear and absolutely perfect, they would fast forward and rewind it as well to show all the video was clear and good quality.... Then when you got home a week or two later and tried to watch it at home it was the worst cam copies you have ever seen and completely unwatchable.. How the hell did they make it looks so good? and they never secretly swapped the tapes or anything... I know its a con and a hustle and I just don't understand how they did that.. Anybody know how that worked? Wasn't just me and I have spoke to dozens of people who all fell for that scam

I knew it!!!🤣🤣🤣

Imagine the thrill of having your weight guessed by a professional weight guesser, you can win anything in this area below the stereo on this side of the bicentennial glasses in this three inch area that includes the chicklets but not the erasers

Their motto is 'There's a Sucker Born every Minute'

Have ya seen Mark Robber & his buddy who plays for the Mets go to a carnival? They destroy the “ throwing “ games, considering his throws are 165 mph fast ball!

I wonder if the carny would agree if you said, "Let me inspect the cans first."

Legend has it that, if you listen very carefully, you can hear a reality TV show in the background of this generic techno music

I thought I had two videos playing at the same time.

Great video. Thanks The Real Hustle! To learn even more about illegal carnival games, read Eyeing the Flash: the Making of a Carnival Con Artist, by Peter Fenton. Published by prestigious Simon and Schuster, it's the memoir of a shy high school math whiz turned first-class hustler on lucrative "joints" ranging from the Razzle to the Swinger, the Six Cat and the dangerous Push 'Em Up Coke. The New York Times gave the book a rave review. Signed, A close friend of Peter Fenton and newly-minted fan of The Real Hustle.

Spent $70 on the throw and land a quarter on the plates game before letting my girlfriend attempt a shot. Of course she lands it on the first try and wins a gigantic stuffed dog.

My favorite game is the shoot the star auto bb gun I've won about 20 times the trick is shoot 2 circles around star then shoot the circle out but I saw 1 guy who it was almost impossible he had the rifles chained so you had to lean on counter and his air compressor would vibrate the counter

County Fair tried tried to get me with that balloon bullshit one year until I started yelling scam and Bullshit they gave me my prize and asked to leave

I dont know about that when after some time I was able to win several games at carnivals and fairs regularly Some people weren't sure how I did it But I did

Shooting gallerys are prime for this , they bend the barrels on the rifles so they don't shoot straight .

Someone talk about the bleachers when you watch the elephant and the lion show there’s little kids underneath them with a razor blades picking your pockets thru the bleachers

this is why you play game where you are guaranteed a prize like win a poster you the one you hit with a dart is the one you get and im sure the darts don't suck on that gamd

That's why the only carny game I'd play was the air rifles first couple a bucks get ya sights lined then clean them out I use pick whatever prize on that I wanted cause I'd never miss or let them change rifle on me

So when the guy running the can game offers you a free try, just before you throw the first beanbag just hesitate and then say "naw, I'll pay to play" hand him the cash and start playing.

Now why the hell are you trying to buy your Christmas gifts at a Carnival?

Do they not have dentists in the UK?

Poor man's casinos. Same odds.

got scammed with the stacked cans technique

If you could win at gambling, there would be no gambling. Some believe there are professional gamblers. I don't.

I remember back in the late 70s getting scammed big time and my girlfriend too,

I've just found my vocation. I'm definitely considering a change of career.

Another popular scam is the three tumbler scam.

i mentioned somewhere else a woman had a relationship with a man that was 31 and had moved 40 times in his adult life he never wore shirts and had scruffy looking jeans always looking like they are falling off my friends and i nailed it when we thought him a carny worker he was living off of her and ate junk food and drinks on the sofa he always looked like he was anorexic sort of cute but so messed up and dull eyed they will live off the regular people please be careful ladies and men

I dont recall carnies being this attractive growing up in Chicago. When the Carnival came to my neighborhood I would ask to help for small wage.

yeah we’ve seen Joe Dirt

these must be European or west coast games...these games are not seen at jersey shore except for the balloon/dart game

When a was a kid I played the dark game and won. But I also almost hit the man running the stand.