Legality
The ability of the crane machine owner to set features such as a payout percentage raises the question of whether these machines should be considered gambling devices in a legal sense, alongside slot machines. In the United States, claw vending machines are typically specifically exempted from statutes which regulate gambling devices, contingent upon compliance with certain rules. In the state of Michigan, for example, this exemption applies only if the wholesale value of the prizes inside is below a certain threshold, and if these prizes are actually retrievable with the claw. Other states hardly regulate crane machines at all. In addition, some attorneys have advised claw machine owners to avoid using the word "skill" in the game description decal present on most machines.
In other jurisdictions, such as Alberta, Canada, skill cranes are illegal unless the player is allowed to make repeated attempts (on a single credit) until he or she succeeds in winning a prize. Skill cranes in single-play mode (where the player has only one chance per credit to try for a prize) were found by the Ontario Court of Appeal to be essentially games of chance, and therefore prohibited except at fairs or exhibitions, where they are covered by an exemption.
State governments have been known to periodically inspect crane games to ensure compliance with the statutes. For example, in a 2008 inspection of New Jersey boardwalk games, inspectors tested whether the claw had enough tension to grip prizes, and whether they could win a prize once in approximately 12 attempts.
Read more about this topic: Claw Crane