The Rat Wheel Along the lines of Gerbil Roulette was a wheel popular in western New York State in the 1980s that used a white rat to determine the winning number.



While approved for use experimentally for a short time frame we received complaints from animal rights people that the game was cruel to the rats.



What ultimately convinced me that its use must be denied was the realization that the game was nearly always gaffed by the carneys operating it: after scanning the betting layouts to see which numbered betting spaces were least bet on they would moisten their fingertip with ammonia from a cotton ball hidden in their pockets, touch the numbered cubby hole of choice with the ammonia-tainted finger and, when the spinning wheel came to a rest, the rat would invariably head straight for the ammonia-scented hideaway.



I was told, although I have no way to confirm it, that the rats used were all male and that to them, ammonia smells like the scent emitted by a female rat.



FF __________________

Ive always been crazy, but its kept me from going insane. - Waylon Jennings