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All's fair (more or less)

Midway game operators want to drain your wallet, and the odds are stacked in their favor. Still, determined competitors do have a shot at winning.

By RICK GERSHMAN
Published February 10, 2005

[Photo: Florida State Fair]

A young fairgoer tries to win a prize at one of the games of skill/luck on the Midway.

	All's fair (more or less) Midway game operators want to drain your wallet, and the odds are stacked in their favor. Still, determined competitors do have a shot at winning. Fair facts Music at the fair Head to the Florida State Fair in Tampa for a wide variety of music

TAMPA - Though the challenge is enormous, these brave men, women and children fight on. They won't stop until the contest is won, its coveted bounty procured.

They know the battle is weighted heavily in the opponent's favor, the degree of difficulty is severe. These contests will require their full effort physically, mentally and emotionally. And, um, financially.

But if these competitors persevere against enormous odds, they will present these hard-fought spoils to their closest loved ones:

A 2-foot-tall SpongeBob SquarePants.

Or a Tweety Bird, a Garfield, a Cookie Monster. Name your favorite stuffed critter.

Hit the midway at the Florida State Fair when it opens today, and you'll find an astounding variety of "plush" - the industry term for stuffed prizes - available to the big winners.

Carnival competitors across America shoot hoops to win Wolverine, the X-Men comic character. (Sort-of hoops, that is, as we'll explain.) They toss rings to gain Chucky, the Child's Play killer doll. (Given the fortunes of a certain look-alike football coach, Chucky's not so much the big draw locally that it once was.) They squirt water rifles to bag Babe, the talking pig. (But the plush doesn't talk, so, basically, you've got yourself a pig.)

All these and more can be yours if the price is right.

For some, though, the price is wrong. To win that big-ticket plush, they overspend on games far tougher than they seem. Game operators cannot legally defraud you outright, but they have many ways to drain you. On the midway, the house edge is staggering.

"It's just like playing the lottery - don't take food off the table to play these games," said Hillsborough County sheriff's Lt. Gary Ganey, whose team inspects games at the fair.

"If you win anything, it might be a big stuffed animal. Personally, I don't want a bunch of stuffed animals in my house."

But if a household overrun with stuffed animals appeals to you - or if you just want to snag a snuggly Spider-Man for your sweetie - there are resources that can help.

Brian Richardson has won more plush than he - or more to the point, than his wife - can handle. He wrote and self-published The Secrets of Amusement Park Games Revealed!, a 96-page minibook that pulls back the curtain on midway trickery.

Richardson figured out many of the games' tricks at Six Flags Astroworld, an amusement park just 2 miles from his Houston home.

His book explains in great detail the keys to winning such popular games as the milk can softball toss, the BB gun star shootout, the ring toss, the "basketball" shoot and water race games.

To be successful as cheaply as possible, Richardson recommends practicing at home. He has built simplified simulations of several games and instructs readers to do the same.

We won't undercut Richardson by giving away all his secrets, but here are some basic strategies:

-- Milk can softball toss: Toss the ball backhanded at the can's front lip to create backspin. It's also best if you release close to the same level as the cans' tops.

-- BB gun star shootout: Instead of firing away at the red star, shoot a pattern around it. Hitting red is a waste of ammo. Be patient, since generally there's no time limit.

-- "Basketball" free-throw shootout: Technically these aren't allowed to be called basketball games because the rims aren't circular, as they appear from a straight-on perspective. They're oval. (That's why you'll always see a required sign noting "Not regulation rims.") Also, the basketballs usually are overinflated.

Those modifications are legal, as long as they remain within state-mandated parameters checked out on Day 1 of the fair by sheriff's detectives and the State Attorney's Office.

Richardson says the best way to win is with the underhand free-throw shot (though some operators, he notes, do not allow this). Use your legs to power the shot and play twice to "zero it in."

Some smaller parks and traveling carnivals might allow and even condone illegal games specifically intended to defraud, Richardson said, but that's rare at big fairs and parks.

"At a major state fair or carnival, you probably will not see any rigged games," he said. "But that doesn't mean they have to make them easy."

At the Florida State Fair, determining the difference between games that are appropriately challenging and those that are rigged is the job of State Attorney Mark Ober and the Hillsborough Sheriff's Office.

That's been a regular detail for Ganey, a 30-year Sheriff's Office veteran. His team uses levels to ensure that the billiards tables are flush, yardsticks to ensure mandated distances and degrees of difficulty, and so on.

"We've never had any problems with the State Fair," he said. "Only a few times did we have to shut something down, and they took care of it."

One case occurred several years ago, when a vendor attempted to run a game in which rings were tossed on upright knives. Ring a knife and you get to keep it.

Ober pulled the plug. He recalled: "We're searching people when they come into the fair to (ensure people's) safety, and once they get in you're going to give them knives?"

On another occasion, one vendor's basketball rims were too small. Oval is okay, but too small is not. Ober required the operator to purchase smaller basketballs to bring the game within the appropriate difficulty level.

The fair contracted out midway management in recent years, but this year the 67 vendor booths - all skill games, no chance games - are being run by fair operations manager Fred Brown.

Brown noted numerous standards he and his crew use to protect the public. They check the backgrounds of all vendors and ensure that all games have proper signs. Brown's crew inspects all the games through the fair's 12 days.

"The softball plastic tub toss has regulations on (its backboards') angles, and we use protractors on them daily to make sure the angles haven't changed," said Brown, a 25-year fair veteran. "We have an image to uphold to all the fairgoers."

Ober said that though his office has a good relationship with fair officials, "We enforce the laws and take that responsibility very seriously. It's our responsibility to make it safe, and make it fair."

[Last modified February 9, 2005, 13:23:08]