When I was a kid, every summer carnivals would come to town. Like a circus without the animals, just dozens of games of chance, merry-go-rounds, ferris wheels, and onther rides. One game of chance was trying to win a cigar by pounding with a sledgehammer on a circular steel plate that caused a weight to go up a vertical track towards a gong at the top, entitling contestant to a prize of a cigar. Macho musclemen would try to impress their dates. It was rumored that the proprietor could keep the weight from going all the way to the top, but I never found out how he could do it, until he wanted somebody to win, to attract more contestants.
His sales pitch was to bellow when a contestant failed was: "Close, but no cigar!" Followed by more chatter to tempt other suckers to try to impress their girls. When there were no suckers waiting, he would with one hand swilng the sledgehammer to make the weight ring the bell, so easily it confirmed my suspicion that his apparatus was rigged.
