Just how fair are those games on the midway at the Iowa State Fair? Officers with the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals were testing the games Thursday.
DIA Director David Werning says the games need to be on the "up and up" through the entire fair. He says the Department of Public Safety will do random checks on the games throughout the fair, while the DIA makes sure the operators are licensed and appropriate signs are place, explaining the difficulty of each game.
Werning says most of the games, while difficult, are relatively fair. He says they’ve been working with the game operators for several years and have rarely had any problems. "When we do find a problem," Werning says, "the manager is very quick to make changes, so a questionable game is not kept on the midway." There are around 50 games of skill and chance on the fairgrounds this year. The DIA also has two or three workers monitoring the state fair’s 225 food and drink stands.
Werning says those workers routinely check the food and drink stands, unannounced, making sure they maintain the proper temperatures and sanitation. The 2007 Iowa State Fair opened Thursday in Des Moines and runs through August 19th.