Random Waves of Insight

Remember those coin flip arcade machines, where you try to get your coin into holes in a cave, and you get points? In the middle on the bottom is a rotating bar that slides all the coins there off the edge into holes worth various ticket amounts.

One time as a kid, I was hanging around the arcade section of a restaurant, but I didn't have any tokens. An employee flipped me a single coin. I was grateful. I plugged it into the coin flip gun, pulled the trigger, and won 50 tickets! Normally you only get 5 here, ten there, 25 if you're lucky. It blew me away that that one chance coin got me the mother lode. I felt like I had just starred in a random commercial. Seriously, the event felt like it belonged on TV.

I remember another time when a young lady and her friend were monopolizing the machine. I watched as she kept flipping coin after coin into the same 25-ticket hole. She had the launch angle perfect, and was going for pure conversion, 1 cent to 1 ticket, a 25 cent token to 25 tickets. I was standing nearby, waiting for a turn. I didn't say anything, but I guess her friend must have, because I remember her saying that she wasn't ready to leave; she was on a roll. I can see the appeal. It's like gaming the system. I wonder what she got with all her tickets? She had a ton.

But when you get older, you realize that the real trick to winning is money. No matter how bad you are at an arcade game, as long as you've got a pocket full of credits, you'll be sure to rack up an impressive amount of tickets if it takes you all day. And by that time, you should be a pro!

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