at least he got a banana

[nostatic]

Man loses entire life savings on carnival game | Death and Taxes

[Jim Richards]

“Oh, that fairground? They say a man lost his entire life savings there. Tried to win his kids a vidya-game back in twenty-thirteen. They say if you walk these streets alone at night you can sometimes see the ghost of his giant rasta banana in the pale moonlight…”

Hahaha!

[kach22i]

That's the kind of dude you want to party with.

[matt f]

Doesn't everyone carry their life savings with them to a carnival?

[red-beard]

What was his life savings?

About tree-fitty....

[rusnak]

He lost over $2,000. But it gets better. He kept losing money, and the carnie kept telling him he'd win it all back. So what does he do after he spent his first three hundy? He goes home, and gets $2K...his. entire. life. savings.

Lost it all.

Goes back the next morning, demands his money back. So they gave him $600 and a banana. I can tell you, most carnie shows would have said tough tacos. That's $600 more than I would have given him, and to be honest he should count himself lucky. Stupid, but lucky.

[red-beard]

You can't fix stupid - Ron White

[Rikao4]

his frau probably sports a heart or Virgin Larry across her chest..


Rika

[Z-man]

I question the validity of the article -- I suspect the amount of his life savings may have been exaggerated....

-Z-man.

[cstreit]

I would like to know which game it was that he played...

...and why did he admit to it publically?

Gotta say though I'll give him credit to manning up to it and not whining "they cheated me!".

[74-911]

I witnessed this exact thing at the Feast of San Genarro? in NYC back in the early 80's. A guy (late 20's I would guess) dressed in an expensive looking suit with a drop dead gorgeous blond - trying to win her this huge E.T. doll (you remember, E.T. phone home?) by tossing softballs into a fruit basket set at an angle. He very quickly was up to $800 and needed to double that amount to try again or to walk away with a $800 loss. By this time a fairly large crowd had gathered to watch when a NY cop stops to see what is going on. The guy with the blond is sweating bullets trying to decide what to do when the cop walks up and asks the carnie to see his permit. The carnie doesn't have one so the cop makes him give the guy his money back. I think most of the crowd were upset at the cop for stopping it.

[McLovin]

Originally Posted by 74-911

I witnessed this exact thing at the Feast of San Genarro? in NYC back in the early 80's. A guy (late 20's I would guess) dressed in an expensive looking suit with a drop dead gorgeous blond - trying to win her this huge E.T. doll (you remember, E.T. phone home?) by tossing softballs into a fruit basket set at an angle. He very quickly was up to $800 and needed to double that amount to try again or to walk away with a $800 loss. By this time a fairly large crowd had gathered to watch when a NY cop stops to see what is going on. The guy with the blond is sweating bullets trying to decide what to do when the cop walks up and asks the carnie to see his permit. The carnie doesn't have one so the cop makes him give the guy his money back. I think most of the crowd were upset at the cop for stopping it.

I saw something similar in Vegas a year ago.

I always thought those guys with a foldup table doing the "shell game" were only in the movies, but they were really doing it on the sidewalk in Vegas, right on the strip (it was on one of the bridges connecting 2 of the huge hotels).

These were fairly high dollar games, I think $100 per bet, the guy has 3 cups and a ball and moves them around quickly and if you guess which one, you win. He does the shuffle first, while everyone is watching, and then asks for bets. Lots of people were stepping up with $100s.

It moves very quickly and hundreds are lost or won in a few seconds.

I'm assuming they have plants in the crowd that "win," but if so, these guys were pretty convincing. Overall, the shell guy seemed to win more than he lost, but he lost quite a few times, too.

It was actually probably the most entertaining thing I saw there all weekend.

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by McLovin

I saw something similar in Vegas a year ago.

I always thought those guys with a foldup table doing the "shell game" were only in the movies, but they were really doing it on the sidewalk in Vegas, right on the strip (it was on one of the bridges connecting 2 of the huge hotels).

These were fairly high dollar games, I think $100 per bet, the guy has 3 cups and a ball and moves them around quickly and if you guess which one, you win. He does the shuffle first, while everyone is watching, and then asks for bets. Lots of people were stepping up with $100s.

It moves very quickly and hundreds are lost or won in a few seconds.

I'm assuming they have plants in the crowd that "win," but if so, these guys were pretty convincing. Overall, the shell guy seemed to win more than he lost, but he lost quite a few times, too.

It was actually probably the most entertaining thing I saw there all weekend.

There is no chance in that game. It is the skill of the "operator" to put the ball under the shell with the least money. Usually they palm the ball then slip it under a shell when they want to "show" it. The guy that usually "wins" is a shill.

[Jim Richards]

Gambled $2300 to win a $300-400 game game machine. He could've just drove over to the store and bought one. He'd still have his $2000 "nest-egg," although the kids would be out one rasta banana.

[bivenator]

That rasta banana is worth every cent of 2300$

[madmmac]

I have gambled and felt like I got the banana sometimes.

[VINMAN]

We have our state firefighters convention every year in September down in Wildwood NJ. A resort town with a huge board walk and amusements. All of the gamers prizes tend to be firefighting themed of course. A bunch of years ago. one of my guys, Russ, hits the boardwalk on Sat. night. Comes back hours later carrying a huge stuffed dalmation he won for his girlfriend. Told us it cost him about $90 but he finally won it.

The next day on Sunday afternoon a few of the guys go out. They come back later on, each carrying the same huge dalmation and a bunch of other stuff. We were like holy crap you won those? They said no, the carney guys sold the Dalamtions to them for $5.00 they had no more use for them after this weekend, it was the last event of the season. They were giving stuff away.
Russ was standing there shaking he was so pissed. We all got a huge laugh out of that one for a long time.

[biosurfer1]

My buddy still wont step in the Excalibur hotel in Vegas. When we were underage we went there because they have a large Midway in the basement. My buddy was a big bball player and wanted to win something they had (I forget) and ended up missing a whole bunch but finally won after dropping over $100...I bet it was a $5 toy.

Don't know if my friend realized how much it was costing but it pissed him off afterwards and he blames the hotel even though he knows he has no reason to