Why does an amusement park guessing game make money even when the operator guesses wrong?
At Worlds of Fun, the guessing game costs $5 to play while each prize costs less than $5, meaning the games department earns a profit on every single play — regardless of whether the guess is right or wrong. This simple pricing structure removes any financial downside to a wrong guess, turning the game into a guaranteed revenue source.
Cole Lindberg takes this logic one step further: he actively encourages his staff to guess wrong on purpose. Players who walk away with a stuffed animal or another prize become involuntary ambassadors for the games area. They carry their winnings around the park all day, drawing attention to the games and motivating other visitors to try their luck. What looks like a giveaway is actually a low-cost marketing tactic built into the game's economics.
This approach reflects the broader operational philosophy Lindberg has developed across 32 games and more than 100 seasonal employees at Worlds of Fun. Every element of the guest experience — including the theatrical wrong guess — is engineered to drive both revenue and foot traffic. You can hear Lindberg explain the full mechanics in this episode on Listenly, part of This American Life's hour-long deep dive into the hidden business of amusement parks.
"This opportunity is probably only going to come along once in a lifetime."
— Cole Lindberg, Games Department Manager, Worlds of Fun
About Cole Lindberg
Cole Lindberg's relationship with Worlds of Fun in Kansas City, Missouri began not as an employee but as a fan: his family held season passes, and he traveled to experience new roller coasters wherever they opened. At 14, he showed up to his first job interview at the park wearing a suit — and never really left.
Eleven years later, Lindberg runs the park's entire games department as a full-time, year-round employee. He oversees 32 games and manages a seasonal workforce of more than 100 young employees, working 60 to 70 hours a week throughout the summer to hit financial targets, manage supply procurement, and keep the operation running. The role demands the instincts of a retail operator as much as those of a people manager.
The position came at a real cost: in his senior year at the University of Kansas at Lawrence, Lindberg dropped out to accept the games manager offer, reasoning it was an opportunity unlikely to come twice. That bet appears to have paid off. His immediate supervisor Matt considers him one of the strongest games managers across the 11 amusement parks operated by Cedar Fair, placing Worlds of Fun — one of the company's smaller properties — in a competitive position against much larger parks.
Lindberg's authority on the economics of amusement park games is grounded in more than a decade of hands-on experience — from operating individual booths as a teenager to designing the incentive structures and revenue strategies that now govern an entire department.
See also
The Sweet 16 tournament pits all 32 games in the park against each other in pairs over a four-week competition to see which game makes the most money. Games compete head-to-head, with the top earner in each pair advancing to the next round.
Cole runs season-long competitions including the Sweet 16 tournament, the Deathmatch tournament, and a stunt called Toss the Boss, where the game that performs best earns its employees the chance to challenge their manager in a high-stakes park tradition.
Cole started at Worlds of Fun at age 14 as a summer job and never left, accumulating 11 years of experience before becoming a full-time year-round employee. He eventually dropped out of college in his senior year to accept the games manager position.