Mike Nay bought his first claw machine during the pandemic to pass the time. Once he had the strategy down and arcades reopened, he was winning hundreds of plushies. He learned he could make a profit ...

Christopher Salazar could not stop with the plush round Kool-Aid Man. The 11-year-old claw machine master had to have more. So, outside a South Side strip mall on a recent early evening, he and his ...