Man Wins Xbox On Cruise Arcade, But Machine Keeps It. Why?

An arcade technician proved his mastery of the arcade game “Stacker” while on a cruise.

Despite triumphing over the game, he didn’t get the Xbox he’d won, however. The machine failed to pay out.

Brian McKanna (@claw_dude) is the coauthor of the 2021 book “How To Beat The Claw Machine: Tips and Tricks to Help you Win Big!” The book’s description says that McKanna ran his own arcade company and maintained the claw machines in Six Flags in St. Louis, Missouri.

So he knows a thing or two about games.

In a post from late June, McKanna wins “Stacker” on a cruise. After he wins, the machine shows that the choices include a Nintendo Switch and an Xbox.

He asks the woman filming, “Do we want an Xbox?”

She responds with an emphatic “Yes,” and McKanna selects the Xbox.

Nothing happens.

“Wait, is it going? It didn’t pay,” he says.

The woman replies, “We got it on video.”

“We gotta go down and tell them,” McKanna says before the TikTok concludes.

Rigged Or Just Hard?

On his TikTok account, McKanna often shares things he’s gleaned about winning—even if a game is rigged.

“Stacker” is an electronic arcade game in which the player must align rows of blocks precisely on top of one another as they move side to side.

There are smaller prizes for stacking a certain number of blocks and large prizes, like an Xbox, for making it to the final level and stacking the blocks all the way to the top.

It’s easy in theory. Just hit the button when the block is directly above the stack.

But it’s purportedly so difficult that the Wikipedia for the game describes winning as “infeasible.” This is because you have such a limited amount of time to press the button to perfectly stack the blocks on one another.

‘That’s How They Rip You Off’

McKanna’s Xbox win and subsequent disappointment aren’t all that uncommon. Arcade and carnival games are often rigged to be unwinnable. And some simply don’t pay out.

In comments on his post, others shared experiences similar to him being denied the Xbox.

“I won a [PlayStation Portable] from a water park on the same machine and the park didn’t pay out,” one person complained.

“Same thing happen to me at an arcade,” a user named Logan wrote. “The manager told me that when u win it just twist the prize a small amount until someone gets it all the way. Even tho it didn’t spin at all.”

McKanna replied, “That’s how they rip you off.”

In the end, he says he got the Xbox. It probably didn’t hurt that he had video evidence.

“It’s all good now!” he writes in the comments.

McKanna didn’t immediately respond to a direct message from BroBible.