Police are busy in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. They have plenty of crime to fight. Theft? Check. Corrupt politicians? Check. Smuggling? Check. Stuffed animals?

Wait, what?

On Wednesday, Rio police carried out 16 search warrants. Their target? Shops, arcades, and toy stores where kids and adults fish for plush toys in claw machines. Police seized the machines—and the fluffy toys inside. They performed a similar crackdown in May. That time, they snagged 80 machines.

Rio’s lawmakers say these games defraud (lie to or cheat) players—especially kids. The police even suspect criminals might be behind the seemingly harmless machines.

But how do claw machines defraud players? 

Imagine playing the game. You put a coin or two in the slot. Clink clink. With a joystick, you steer a metal claw over a pile of stuffed animals. Once it’s perfectly placed to snag a toy, you press the button. The claw opens up, drops down, and . . . misses it.

Did you aim poorly? Do you just need to try harder? Probably not. In fact, your skill likely had nothing to do with it.

In the past, some claw machines depended on actual skill. But most modern machines are pre-programmed against you. They make you lose most of the time. Will the game finally let you win? That’s a roll of the dice—and the odds aren’t good. Most people who play don’t know it’s rigged.

This makes claw machines a game of chance, like slot machines in casinos. In Rio de Janeiro, that makes them illegal.

Most claw machines cost only a dollar or two to play. But God wants people to use their money wisely. And if you can’t help playing just one more time, the game gets expensive quickly!

One question remains. What happens to all the stuffed animals? In the May crackdown, police seized 13,000 plushies from claw machines. They were going to destroy the cuddly creatures. But a judge spared the stuffies. Instead, police donated them to children who lost their homes in floods.

Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce. — Proverbs 3:9