How to be a high roller

This advice is controversial. Purists will scoff. But the family that owns Skee-Ball recommends banking your shot if you want to hit the Skee-Ball's elusive 50-point ring and the 100-point bonus circles.

"I've always been a proponent of banking," said owner and CEO Joe Sladek. "If you bank the ball off the sides, it redirects into the upper pockets."

Here's how:

Every Skee-Ball alley has a thin rubber bumper running the length of both sides. Aim your Skee-Ball to bank off the upper corner of this strip, maybe 9 inches shy of the top.

Once you get the hang of it, the technique will give your Skee-Ball wings, popping it above the lowly 10- and 20-point rings and into the loftier pockets.

Skee-Ball scion Michael Sladek once banked his way to a 580 roll at Dave & Buster's. The average Skee-Ball score is 260 points for a nine-ball game, he said. "Anything over 200 is respectable."

Jersey Shore arcades are known in the trade to have loose ticket dispensers, he said, so they're a good place to score top-shelf prizes.

- Becky Batcha