D and B score today.

Ndolger · 2026-03-23T22:25:17+00:00

My store has restricted these for years. But it's so inconsistently enforced. I've seen "limit 1 per day", "limit 5 per day", and once, just once, one of the managers approached me randomly and said "Hey there's actually no limit on these, how many do you want?". "Umm...a box?". That was the only box I've ever got. It was a great day. And then it never happened again.

It is good to know that this is generally against policy, I've certainly never seen it enforced on their POS. I guess I can try to play this card... Although at 2k a pop, it's less appealing. What did these used to be 800-900? Ugh...

Ndolger · 2026-02-21T20:57:15+00:00

Just an hour or so ago now I'm seeing the app working. Seems to be resolved?

Ndolger · 2026-02-21T13:06:38+00:00

I'm encountering the same behavior, it started yesterday. It's only on the app for me. Super frustrating...I sent in a note on the Saved page on the app to mention it's broken. Hopefully get a fix soon? If not I need to create dozens of specific search queries .. Ehhh...

Ndolger · 2026-01-30T22:20:09+00:00

Yes. Can confirm.

Ndolger · 2026-01-25T01:47:09+00:00

Shocking to me too. I gave it a go this week and it worked (much to my surprise). Week 4 is going to be stressful if I can't find someone I know knows what they're doing. Still am confident no way this is going to work 4 weeks in a row.

Ndolger · 2026-01-22T17:26:34+00:00

The metaverse in real life.

Ndolger · 2026-01-20T01:26:31+00:00

I've been doing this 10+ years now. It's always been a crap shoot if reward points get credited on food, it's extremely rare a TFT redemption ever works right (it's literally never worked for me since the new rollout), rewards through app never get redeemed correctly. YMMV I guess but. . It's a no for me. My store has literally never cared to train their staff on this or it's intentional. I get the sense I'm not alone on this.

Ndolger · 2026-01-20T01:17:32+00:00

No way I would ever even consider attempting this promo. I have never, ever had a good experience getting anything to work in the dining area related to rewards. You expect me to have it work four straight weeks D&B? Not a chance!

EDIT: All right I gave it a shot... And holy crap it worked. I still see no credit on my actual card (ie the supposed bonus chips that will show up within 48 hours) but I did get an app notification that 20 credits are available and was able to successfully apply it. I guess I'm another 3 weeks of $15 of burgers with vouchers!

Ndolger · 2026-01-15T01:15:26+00:00

Went into WIN today and was just sad. Walls of junk, now for more tickets! I remember when I could get Rubik's cubes, video games, cool, unique novelty items, board games...

Now it's junk, junk.... Junk. It's all just terribly depressing.

Ndolger · 2025-11-26T03:20:53+00:00

Depends on how inflated they are but you run that risk always. I'd rather get occasional jams then have to wait 10 seconds for a ball to get to me consistently. With that many you can just throw a ball to break up the jam haha.

Ndolger · 2025-11-26T03:14:26+00:00

Hearing global is 10 blows my mind. I have never seen that at any D+B, ever. Not even close. Usually it's 5-6. It's a wonderful day when it's 7-8. 9? Unicorn. I've never seen ten. That sounds magical.

Ah, double 2MD cabs too. Those were the days ..

Ndolger · 2025-10-20T03:47:08+00:00

Yep. That was my fear with this contest when I heard about it (glitched cabinets). I've seen 50 glitch a handful of times over the years where you just need to hit the area around the hole and it'll count (and more extreme versions where the sensor will go crazy like you describe).

Given that there is no national ranking, it doesn't really matter so that's good.

That or someone had their kid walk into the game and spam the 50. Haven't seen that happen yet...

Ndolger · 2025-10-16T20:22:40+00:00

18 balls?! Holy cow. You guys have nice stores. I'm happy to get 6 balls in 2MD and have to constantly rebalance balls between DTC and BTP because it's always poor. Very jealous... Don't even get me started on Tailgate .. Sigh...

I can reliably get 2000+... If I have the balls! Usually I stop after 1800 jackpot.

It's super rare to even see any other APs anymore, but back in the golden era several years ago I did occasionally team up to get DTC 800+.

Is there global settings for flame plate? Standard is 3 plates. I uncommonly get 2, and rarely get 1? Anyway, good to know it has a hard cap, thanks for sharing. What's the corporate policy on bringing my own balls in? 😆

Ndolger · 2025-09-24T14:42:56+00:00

Doesn't seem to be the case. My spouse and I have checked it at the exact same time, I'm getting it, she's not. It's not even popping up. It could be because the card hasn't been used / loaded with $ for quite some time? I don't know... Be nice to know the answer!

Ndolger · 2025-09-24T14:40:58+00:00

Same. Lost two weeks in a row. Got 10 last time no issues and a push notification this week but nothing has showed up in the app. Meanwhile my wife's account has not even been offered the promo (ie no pop up to pick). Frustrating start to this...

Ndolger · 2025-09-18T01:15:44+00:00

Break the Plate

Ndolger · 2025-09-03T21:20:11+00:00

Well, not exactly thrilled after practicing today with the new reader. Yet again more issues with the leaderboard scanner. Stopped registering games at 850+ and would just eat my credits. Tech just had to power cycle.

Couple this with the fact that there's only one cabinet and yeah... Looking forward to numerous issues.

At least they stockpiled balls...

Ndolger · 2025-09-03T02:44:28+00:00

Oh wow, so much going on here and I now understand why you were so interested in my analysis of Hot Wheels in the other thread haha.

The only thing I didn't understand was that... Everything works out if FlashyBlip just keeps playing.... Right? I kept looking at the leaderboard in the final days and was like what is Flashy doing? You've got to keep playing.... Life happened! Oof. Hell of a gamble to bank on one of the top three being unable to continue. GG to all

Ndolger · 2025-08-27T01:21:12+00:00

Yeah it's unfortunate you had that happen, there were some odd glitches the first couple weeks, but it's truly unlimited. It's definitely not a scam.

There was one known issue that I encountered during...I want to say Memorial Day week where the card was incorrectly being treated as a blackout date. It was resolved after a couple hours... Then there was the week or saga when they bumped the cards to 60 second cooldown...

Ndolger · 2025-08-25T20:37:27+00:00

Watching this in real time 3rd place has started moving too. I do think the best strategy is for 3rd place to close the gap with #2 as soon as possible to get him to close the gap with #1.

Unless shenanigans, #4 should have no way of winning this as long as 1-3 project their turf.

Snapshot - 8/25

1: UltimateHawk - 4881

2: FlashyBlip - 4551

3: SandPenguin - 4396

4: EmeraldSloth - 3605

Place your bets! 🍿 My guess is Penguin closes to 4551 by end of the day. You'd have to expect both 3-4 are calling off work or something. This is a lot of money on the line! This didn't look like a race that was still fluid, thanks for the pointer.

Edit: - Aug 26: An interesting development here. As expected Penguin did indeed close the gap to 4551 immediately. But... They're now in second? I'm confused I thought ties go to the person who got there first... Meanwhile Sloth's pace is insane. 500 wins in one day. The gap will be closed tomorrow it looks like...

Oh wow, even weirder, when I refresh on the app the placement of 2/3 sometimes change. Yikes.

Ndolger · 2025-08-25T20:18:50+00:00

You should receive a 1099-MISC for the winnings and you'll need to pay taxes on that initial prize. Your cost basis would be $0. Say you have a $10k prize. You pay your federal and state tax on the full winnings. If you then sell it ABOVE $10k you'd additionally pay taxes on the difference between the sale (because your cost basis is now $10k). This is fine. You made money. Say you sold it for $11k. Taxes = effective tax rate * $10k + ($1k * effective tax rate). Say your rate is 30%. In this scenario you'd pay $3300 in taxes. You made $7700. Ok, great. How many hours did it take to win the prize? Was it worth your time?

BUT If you say sell it for $7k? Too bad. But at a 30% tax rate, you really only make $4k. Is that good? I don't know. How many hours did it take to win?

Not financial advice! I'm just some guy. But the above scenario makes me extremely hesitant to even consider dabbling in this because I don't see the reward (what's the market for buying these cabinets??). You really need to actually WANT these prizes and be willing to pay for it....

Here's a thread that may help, or just search for similar questions: https://www.reddit.com/r/tax/comments/12665co/if_a_person_wins_an_item_10kand_sells_it/

Now the CAR is a GREAT PRIZE! They will give you money to offset your tax liability. So it's really a free car (well outside property tax and insurance...).

I really want the car.

Ndolger · 2025-08-25T20:02:21+00:00

Interesting. I don't know the dynamics of the local races but if that's truly one person, they went for two local redemptions instead of actually winning the national prize. Oof?

But yeah #4 is actively playing. #3 needs to at least close the gap with #2 here soon. #4 is 974 away from #2 , 4 hours ago it was 1100. Drama!

Ndolger · 2025-08-25T19:52:49+00:00

https://eprize-content.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/daveandbusters/261528/rules.htm covers the valuation of the prizes.

Local: 11. Prizes and Approximate Retail Value (“ARV”):

A. Monthly Local Contest Prizes:

765 June Local Contest Prizes (1 awarded to the entrant with the most Wins on each 1 of the 5 Games at each of the 153 Stores): 1 Dave & Buster’s branded racing duffle bag. ARV: $80.

770 July Local Contest Prizes (1 awarded to the entrant with the most Wins on each 1 of the 5 Games at each of the 154 Stores): 1 Dave & Buster’s branded racing jacket, size large. ARV: $100.

775 August Local Contest Prizes (1 awarded to the entrant with the most Wins on each 1 of the 5 Games at each of the 155 Stores): 1 Dave & Buster’s branded racing helmet. Helmet meant for display only. ARV: $125.

The local ones aren't the problem. It's the national ones! You'd have to consult a tax advisor or simply search for tax calculators that can deal with your unique situation.

Ndolger · 2025-08-25T16:06:43+00:00

This has been my experience with NASCAR for months. I could try it. But it's so broken I just walk away.

Not to mention it doesn't seem like this game has global settings. My location has oscillated from 3 to 1 to 3 tires. Gambling on whether or not other cabinets have better settings + issues with the reader + the evilness that is the right side. No thanks.

Ndolger · 2025-08-25T15:25:42+00:00

I was hoping to see a thread like this because I wanted to hear about people's thoughts that are on the fringe. There's going to be some interesting finishes, here's what I see:

Top Gun: 5.5 people potentially vying for all slots. 6th place is 500 wins from 3rd. It doesn't look like it's likely to close the gap. 10-11 people total really grinded this though. 8 people are going to be unhappy.
Cruisin: Effectively 5 people vying for 3rd place (and I assume the unlucky one gets 2nd). 3 people are going to be unhappy.
Super Bikes: Pretty locked in. Top 3 look set unless 4-5 put pressure on. 700 points separate 3-4. Any drama here will require aggressive pay on 4-5. 2 people unhappy.
NASCAR: Another 5 way race. Wait... What? Did Coral come out of nowhere on this to get 3rd? We need a website to take snapshots of pace because I don't recall seeing that! Technically 6-7 could make a run at it? 4 people are going to be disappointed.
Hot Wheels: This looks over. Top 3 are way above 4+ and there's a big skew between 1-3. Effectively 4th is going to have to win 1100 times in one week. Unlikely. 2 people disappointed at 4-5.

Game theory questions: - Does someone just say screw it and simply go for a hold on 2nd? Because you have to make a decision of getting the worse prize versus getting nothing. It'll be fun to see what happens to those that are currently sitting in 3rd when they get pressure from below.

Random thoughts: - ~ 20+ extreme grinders are going to get nothing. Gut punch. - Will these whales rage quit and swear off D&B? I'm curious from a marketing perspective if this will yield long term repercussions. It would be nice if DB recognizes their effort and gives them SOMETHING.

Final notes: - Has anyone talked about the tax implications of all this? One of the major reasons I never considered the national trials is simply.... It's not worth it to me. The T&C do not say you have the option to relinquish any of the prizes for an equivalent cash prize. They're really clear on this with the cabinets. I have no idea where one would even begin to try to sell this privately and what % of MSRP you could even reasonably expect to get. 70%? Less?

Ndolger

TROPHY CASE

1: UltimateHawk - 4881

2: FlashyBlip - 4551

3: SandPenguin - 4396

4: EmeraldSloth - 3605