Bar Game Offers $3 Lobsters
HILTON HEAD, S.C. (UPI) -- A company that manufactures machines that dispense real lobsters says five businesses in the Hilton Head, S.C., area have installed its products.

The Lobster Game machines, which debuted years ago in Florida and have recently begun spreading through the Carolinas, costs three dollars to play and awards live lobsters to those who can capture them with the machine's button-operated claw, the (Hilton Head) Island Packet reported Monday.

The company that manufactures the machines, Bluewater Vending, said the machines earn bar and restaurant owners an average $1,000 per day. It said bars and restaurants that contain the machines offer to cook the lobsters for the winners or allow them to take them home.

Bars said some customers $30 or more at a time trying to capture the lobsters.

Employees at Jock's Sports Grill in nearby Bluffton said they briefly operated one of the machines, but got rid of it after customers became too skilled and the machine began running out of lobsters too frequently.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International