A childhood without a failure at a claw machine is incomplete. But it’s ok, it’s not your fault.

History writer Phil Edwards took a peek at the instruction manuals of some claw games and found a rotten discovery: The machine grabs things only when it’s profitable. BOOOO!

The machine does some quick maths, calculating whether or not it’s financially responsible to go “full-claw” and grab your stuffed toy. So basically, it will only let you win if it’s already made a profit. 

It’s not all doom and gloom, the machine will go full claw every now and again, once in ever twenty-one attempts to be precise. Although that is also randomized, so you can’t hang around and count like those guys do with fruit machines in pubs, waiting for you to blow all your money and then go swooping in to empty the machine out. 

Just to make sure they are proper kill joys, they even programme the machine to make it look like you nearly won. 

The dream is over. But we should have known all of this anyway.

Watch the full video here.