Patent ID: 7594662

Claim:
A prize-capturing game apparatus comprising: a drop inlet for allowing a player to drop a prize stored in the inside of a casing through the operation of the player; an outlet disposed on an outer wall of said casing, said outlet allowing the player to take out the prize dropped into said drop inlet; a prize depositing portion for temporarily depositing the prize dropped into said drop inlet, said prize depositing portion including said outlet; a shutter disposed above said drop inlet or on a path from said drop inlet to said outlet, said shutter being configured to selectively open or close said drop inlet or the path, and to block a communication between the prize depositing portion and the drop inlet upon closing the drop inlet or the path; an opening/closing driving mechanism for opening and closing said drop inlet by automatically driving said shutter; a prize outlet door configured to be openable and closable when the player takes out the prize dropped into said drop inlet from said outlet; an outlet opening/closing detecting unit configured to detect opened and closed states of said prize outlet door; a controlling unit configured to control opening and closing of said drop inlet and/or said outlet; and an outlet locking unit configured to maintain a state where said outlet is closed by locking said prize outlet door, wherein said controlling unit maintains a state where said prize outlet door has closed said outlet by locking said outlet locking unit and controls driving of said shutter so as to open said drop inlet using said opening/closing driving mechanism when said prize outlet door has closed said outlet based on a detection signal from said outlet opening/closing detecting unit.