***I recall when I was in college one of my friends lost every cent he had on him at the one where you toss the ball at a bulls eye hoping the ball falls into a hole in the bottom of the basket.***
I had a carny try that with me back in 1963. First he let me practice. Every ball hit and fell through the hole.
You could tell by the sound that there was something solid behind the basket center.
So I tried. The balls hit and went “bonk, bonk, bonk, bink”
and the last ball bounced out. I knew right then that the game was rigged.
I never did figure out exactly how they did it but I did notice the back of the basket had a box around 8 inches deep, when there was no reason for there to be anything back there.
Clearly some mechanism but I have no idea how he worked it.