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State Inspectors Offer Tips For Playing Boardwalk Arcade Games Without Getting Ripped Off

NEW JERSEY SHORE (CBS) -- State inspectors at the Jersey shore say most boardwalk arcade games are legitimate, and not rigged. But there are ways you can avoid getting ripped off.

"Watch the tram car, please."

That's not all you should watch out for when playing arcade games along the Boardwalk.

Scott Jenkins, the chief investigator with New Jersey's Legalized Games of Chance Control Commission, says basketball backboards should be perpendicular to the rim - not angled back.

"On a basketball rim, make sure that it's not oval-shaped. Make sure it's round. Make sure that somebody before you is able to get that basketball through that rim!"

And he says, watch which claw-grab games you choose to play.

"Try to find claw cranes that have rubber tips on the end of them. It's going to actually give you a better chance of winning the game."

Jenkins says it is rare, but during his inspections he's actually seen some claw grab prizes tied down, so that they were impossible to win.

Reported by Mike DeNardo, KYW Newsradio

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