Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2018 September 27

= September 27 =

What is a fish game?
Here are some sources.

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/latest-news/article213508384.html https://www.wfmynews2.com/article/news/local/game-over-police-cracking-down-on-fish-table-games-in-greensboro/448188230 https://myfox8.com/2017/06/12/greensboro-police-issuing-warnings-to-fish-game-operators/

I'm wondering which Wikipedia article or articles would cover these.— Vchimpanzee  •  talk  •  contributions  •  14:48, 27 September 2018 (UTC)
 * According to your first link "Garish aquatic creatures swim across a 55-inch TV screen embedded in the six-foot game table. If you shoot and kill one — sometimes a whale, a sea dragon or monster crab — you win points. Points are redeemable for cash or more credits to keep playing. This is the fish game ." (emphasis added by me). DuncanHill (talk) 14:51, 27 September 2018 (UTC)
 * It is a type of Redemption game of the "Fish Hunter" genre. Another source:  —2606:A000:1126:4CA:0:98F2:CFF6:1782 (talk) 16:58, 27 September 2018 (UTC)
 * Thanks.— Vchimpanzee  •  talk  •  contributions  •  17:30, 27 September 2018 (UTC)
 * Most states don't approve of gambling, is it's competition for their own lotteries. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 10:15, 28 September 2018 (UTC)
 * Most states approve of gambling where I live. HiLo48 (talk) 23:32, 28 September 2018 (UTC)
 * The OP is from the USA. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 23:47, 28 September 2018 (UTC)
 * While the term originated with a specific type of video game, it is spreading to refer to any game that gives you tickets or points that you can later exchange for cash. If you've been to a Chuck e Cheese, most of those games are "fish games" because they give you tickets. What makes Chuck e Cheese different is that the children exchange tickets for goods, not cash. The slap houses that are illegal exchange tickets for cash, not goods. They can get around it using the pachinko house method. In a pachinko house, you play the game and get little balls. You exchange the balls for a medallion of some sort. Then, you leave the building and go next door to an "unrelated" business that purchases those medallions for cash. It is not illegal for a business to give away medallions for games. It is not illegal for a business to purchase medallions. It is only illegal if they are the same business. So, all that is really happening is that pachinko is being replaced by fish games. It isn't an entirely new problem. 71.12.10.227 (talk) 12:54, 29 September 2018 (UTC)
 * Saying that scheme is not illegal treads on shaky ground. Keep in mind that each American state has its own laws about gambling. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 13:27, 29 September 2018 (UTC)
 * Yes. I'd note that AFAIK, pachinko in the form the OP describes is primarily a Japanese phenomenon. And even there, our article notes there's an open question as to how legal some of these operations are as these "unrelated" businesses don't always seem to be as unrelated as they should be. In the US, it's a lot more complicated [//portcitydaily.com/local-news/2016/12/29/visit-panchinko-world-the-only-game-parlor-of-its-kind-in-north-america/] and even exchange goods for cash style structures are a lot less common, let alone the specific machines themselves. This is also noted without specific reference to pachinko 2606's source which also mentions another key thing. In the US a big deal tends to be made over whether something is a game of chance or a game of skill. This is also something daily fantasy sports have made a big deal over as noted by John Oliver [//www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mq785nJ0FXQ]. (Which is not to suggest games of skill are immune to challenge or games of chance are always illegal.) Nil Einne (talk) 05:11, 2 October 2018 (UTC)
 * Uhh, I hate it when they start talking about games of skill and chance, especially when some clown brings up "percentage" of skill, which can only be a completely made up number. The only thing you can decide in mathematics is, if there are both long-run winning and long-run losing strategies for the player (without cheating), then it's a game of skill, as the player can both win if s/he plays well and lose if s/he plays badly. Otherwise, it's a game of chance. Chess, poker and blackjack are games of skill. Craps, baccarat and slot machines are games of chance. Of course you rarely hear it put this way because everyone in this debate has a vested interest… 93.136.119.179 (talk) 23:12, 3 October 2018 (UTC)
 * Slot machines are largely games of chance, but on many machines (at least here in the UK) unskilled casual players are much less likely to win big prizes because they don't know the quirks of the machines, which may include 'clues' that an experienced player will pick up on. One real life example I remember is from a £150 jackpot machine in the 1990s (before I gave up playing these things), which would offer holds and flash all its lights, to alert the serious player to hold all the reels and then release, and would then dial in an automatic small or large jackpot. --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 10:17, 4 October 2018 (UTC)