The city is finally cleaning up a longtime seedy strip near the Coney Island boardwalk that had been filled with rigged carnival games and ripped off beachgoers for years.
The city has tapped Zamperla USA — which already runs Luna Park and much of the amusement district — to take over “Jones Walk” by the Bowery and bring 10 new children-themed attractions there. This includes a lazer-maze challenge where kids get to dodge around green-lazers to complete an obstacle course and another attraction in which patrons can shoot their own music video.
Upon receiving various complaints late last year, the city cleared out the old-school carnival games – including one booth called “Gangster Cigars” that was caught ripping customers off on a hidden camera by Arnold Diaz of Fox NY’s “Shame on You.”
Patrons would routinely lose hundreds of dollars trying to toss a rigged ping-pong ball through a hole to win a flat-screen TV.
The city bought Jones Walk in 2009 and inherited the tenants.