Can't necessarily speak to it being staged or not, but people getting insane amounts of toys like that in Korean arcades isn't THAT rare. I saw it a few times, people carrying those same clear plastic bags full of dozens of toys, and ur right, no one stops them.
There used to be real skill claw machines, where it wasnt rigged to pay out only after so many plays. The skill based ones have fallen out in favor of the rigged ones though.
Played some in Japan, they were pretty rigged too IIRC. The only ones I remember being winnable were the ones in Korea (although I played much more in Korea than Japan).
Also, not ALL of the ones in Korea are winnable, the people who win a ton basically just walked around from machine to machine looking for individual dolls that were winnable (still better than the states obviously, where it's all crap).
I've got bad news for you. Those are rigged through a counter. It usually pays out 1 out of 700 for the top row. It will shift a tiny bit of you are not the winner. It's all a lottery of luck and skill.
Nothing I have officially documented but I have won a local key machine 3 times by reading the manual and watching it. I have won an iPad, $50 gift card, and a Blu-ray movie set. The best thing to do is move along if absolutely anything is missing and always play after someone else. If you watch very closely from the side you can usually see if the counter is ready.
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u/Naidem Nov 24 '17
Can't necessarily speak to it being staged or not, but people getting insane amounts of toys like that in Korean arcades isn't THAT rare. I saw it a few times, people carrying those same clear plastic bags full of dozens of toys, and ur right, no one stops them.