did you read the part where it said people are losing jobs and business’s ? not to mention these machines are super trashy eye sores stinking up every street. of course this is taiwan so nobody gives a crap. but you made a good point. why not tax them more? seems like a no brainer.
My wife said that there is a popular scheme now, where anyone can ‘own’ any number of claw machines under a 6 month contract. Everything is in place, just sign a contract for x machines for y months. You don’t need to bother with maintenance, renting space, etc.
It don’t make sense to me, but that’s what I heard.
You walk past these places and in 90% of the cases there is no one in there.
I think money laundering.
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Organized crime is involved for sure!
My impression is that the owners try to find an area where there are no/few machines, move in with a short term contract (and maybe some new crazy machines like the ones mentioned above, animals, LINE contacts, veggies) and try to ride the initial wave (where every neighborhood auntie has to try it at least once) for as long as possible. Once income drops, try to move somewhere else.
My hope is that the novelty factor wears off at some point, the machines can not get crazier anymore and the number of claw machine places drops back to a “normal” level.
the area behind my house has 5 separate claw shops within a 2 minute radius. and extra machines outside brekfast shops and laundrettes incase that wasn’t enough.
Soon 7-11, FamilyMart and other convenience stores will start too!
What I don’t understand is why now?
When I got here years ago they had these machines but it was only in a few locations and when I peeked in hardly anybody played it. Oh yeah sometimes people would play it at the night market for fun but it certainly wasn’t an addiction among people.
Then it just exploded.
Wonder what was that point where somebody said, let’s put claw machines everywhere.
Because they banned pachinko machines, the preferred gambling den outfit. Claw machines are not just for fun. There is more to it then the unknowing eye can see.
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Pachinko is banned now?
There was a massive location in Kaohsiung a few years back, maybe if I go back it’s a claw machine store now lol.
Wonder how that works for gambling big money.
Thanks for the explanation
In the early 2000’s a bunch of Taiwanese entrepreneurs took the machines to Latin America, allies and not, and made a bundle. Alas, as China stepped in, their mafia strong arm wrestled for this market…And won. So now the Taiwanese businessmen have hightailed it back to Taiwan. Hence the flood.
This is a mainly mafia controlled business. Mafia is also being paid to destabilise Taiwan. They have plenty of resources and do not mind not making a profit. They are winning in other ways.
" Claw machine craze sparks calls for animal protection law review"
"A legislative report is calling for a review of the Animal Protection Act amid the booming popularity of claw crane machines and the growing practice of offering live animals as prizes, which has sparked accusations of animal cruelty.
They are accused of offering live animals such as lobsters and mud crabs as prizes and putting up signs to tell customers that “clawing invertebrates is not against the law.”
Weird things in Taiwan!
TT
"Taiwan had 6,409 stores registered to offer the machines for use as of the end of May, compared with 2,859 at the end of last year, Ministry of Finance statistics showed.
The report also said that about 90 percent of prizes from the machines, usually plush toys, did not meet labeling standards."
All imported crap from China probably!
where the fuck am I and why did I come here?
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Progress Taiwan style
A stingy Taiwanese guy that ran a mom&pop store for over 20+ years just decided a few weeks it’s time to retire. He rented out his store to … yes, a claw machine enterprise! Now we have in the immediate neighborhood about 5-6 of them.
500NTD a day profit. That’s pretty decent for a passive income that requires little investment, although by the sounds of things this machine was more popular than usual. If you can just think of something that would be popular and not illegal
What is this? Grab the ‘titty’?