Just how heavily rigged against you are carnival games? Japan’s Fuji TV had National Rifle Team member Mamika Tsuruoka play a typical shooting game in which players try to win prizes by shooting them over with cork ‘bullets.’ Tsuruoka was trying to knock down and win all fifty prizes on display. She was able to do so, but at a cost: Despite being an expert markswoman, Tsuruoka actually lost money on the enterprise. She would have come out ahead but for a grand prize that sounds as though it was meant to be impossible to knock over. (Tsuruoka figured out a way, but it was creative — and costly — to execute.)
After 62 shots, she has claimed 49 of the 50 prizes. The total cost of her ammo was 2,480 yen (40 yen per cork). The total cost of the prizes won was 3,940 yen. However, the remaining prize is a large box that cannot easily be knocked down. Single shots are too weak to move the box, so she gets her friends to help her fire volleys at the target. This tactic works, and after 9 volleys it falls to the ground. Unfortunately, that used a lot of corks, so the total price of knocking over all 50 targets ends up at 5,360 yen. The actual price of the prizes totaled to 4,535 yen, so the festival booth guy made a profit of 825 yen.
Video of the feat:
(Japan Probe via Boing Boing)
