We’ve all seen these types of arcade games like Sega’s Key Master. The type of game that is seemingly skill-based and if you’re great at reflexes and hit the button on time then you’ll get rewarded with a prize. You’ll often find these machines in different arcades or public areas like mall outlets. However, you might not know that some of these machines are not necessarily based on skill. Players can do everything correctly, but you’ll still find that the game will trigger a loss.
It’s a bit like carnivals where the games and activities are skewed in a way to force participants to lose. As mentioned, Sega Key Master is the game in question which is advertised to be a bit like a game of skill. Here players will use their reflexes to correctly trigger the button to unlock a prize, but a new lawsuit has hit Sega over this rigged arcade game. In the lawsuit, it’s been discovered that Key Master operates on losses rather than skill. Even if the player times out the button pushes correctly, the game will still trigger a loss if the machine has not hit the number of losses required before a win is awarded.
The default number that comes set with the game is 700 losses before a win is awarded. However, that’s only the default number as the operator can increase this number if they please. At that rate, there’s no telling just how many losses the game requires before it’s ready to pay out a win. Problem is that there’s nothing on the machine to indicate this to the player spending their money to attempt at beating the game for a prize.
This machine and likely others similar to it simply displays a game of skill instead of chance. As a result, the lawsuit is asking for $5 million in damages which would be distributed among consumers. Now it looks like this Key Master title has been pulled from Sega’s arcade game options and instead the company now offers an overhaul model. Now operators can purchase Prize Locker which offers similar gameplay but this time purely based around skill rather than chance.
Source: Polygon
