I haven’t spent money on a claw machine for ages. Last time must have been before grade school. For the life of me though I cannot remember a single time that I played and actually won. Was I so bad at this? Was it a conspiracy from an extra-terrestrial government? Probably not.

Evidently, the whole thing has been a fraud all along. There is an actual algorithm behind the machine that lets you win when the money you’ve spent on it overpasses the item’s price. The algorithm is so sophisticated that after several tries it will let you come closer to actually winning the prize just to give you the motivation of giving it another shot.

Here’s an in-depth video by Vox Media that explains it all:

Childhood destroyed, I guess.

Have anything to add to this story? Feel free to sound off in the comments’ section below.