I swear I'd written about this before.  It appears that the near-ubiquitous "crane game", where you pick up prizes and hope to win, is played a bit differently in England.

According to this video, the payout is scheduled by a "yellow box" inside.  As I've won twice in a row, I think that if the game is "gamed", it's a little more complicated here in the states.

I doubt it's gamed, but just mechanically unlikely to pay out.

(That said, many early pinball games---Evel Knievel I remember---had an iron-core ball and electromagnets whose "screw" setting was adjustable.)