Plinko board game: the Price Is Right board, its prizes and the maths behind it
This page is about the big pegboard from The Price Is Right and the tabletop copies people buy for parties. You'll find the slot values, the chip rules, the $50,000 ceiling and the 150-year-old maths that decides where a chip lands. The casino game with the same name lives on our Plinko in Canada page.
The TV board in numbers
| First aired | January 3, 1983[1] |
|---|---|
| Slots at the bottom | Nine[1] |
| Slot values, outside in | $100 · $500 · $1,000 · $0 · $10,000 · $0 · $1,000 · $500 · $100[1] |
| Chips | One free, up to four more for pricing small prizes[1] |
| Top possible prize | $50,000 (five chips in the $10,000 slot)[1] |
| Before 1998 | Centre slot $5,000, top prize $25,000[1] |
Look at the layout once more: the $10,000 slot sits in the exact centre, and the two slots touching it pay nothing. A chip that almost makes it is worth less than one that drifts all the way to the edge.
Why the middle is so hard to hit: Galton's bean machine
Plinko is a showbiz version of a device Francis Galton presented at the Royal Institution on February 27, 1874[2]. Beads fall through rows of pegs, bounce left or right at each one, and pile up in bins at the bottom in the shape of a bell curve.
The maths is short. If a bead goes left or right with equal odds at each of n rows, the chance it lands in bin k is "n choose k" divided by 2n[2]. The centre bins collect most beads, but each individual bin is still a long shot — and a flat chip on a TV board can wobble, skip and roll, so it drifts more than a textbook bead.
The same formula runs every casino Plinko game, with one difference: the software, not a wobbling chip, decides each bounce. We turn it into odds for every bucket on our Plinko strategy maths page.
Home and party boards
Tabletop Plinko boards are sold as family games, and full-size boards are a staple of party-rental companies. A few things separate a board that plays well from one that frustrates:
- Offset rows. Each row of pegs sits halfway between the pegs above it, so the chip has to choose a side every time.
- Gap wider than the chip. If the chip can wedge between two pegs, the game stops. Leave clear space on both sides.
- A slight backward lean. Boards stand a little off vertical so the chip stays against the face instead of falling out.
- Symmetric prizes. Copy the TV idea: big prize in the middle, nothing right beside it, small prizes on the edges.
The casino game called Plinko
Online casinos took the board and swapped dollars for multipliers. You choose how many rows the ball falls through and how risky the payout table is, then the ball drops in a couple of seconds. There are several versions from different studios, each with its own return to player — that's what our Plinko in Canada guide compares. Want to see the physics without spending anything? The studios publish free versions, listed on our Plinko demo page.
Plinko board questions
What is a Plinko board?
A tall pegboard with nine slots at the bottom. You drop a flat chip from the top, it bounces off the pegs and lands in one slot, and the slot decides the prize. It is a pricing game on The Price Is Right, built like the bean machine Francis Galton showed in 1874.
How much can you win on Plinko on The Price Is Right?
Up to $50,000: a contestant can have five chips, and the centre slot pays $10,000. Before 1998 the centre slot paid $5,000, so the top prize was $25,000.
Has anyone won $50,000 on Plinko?
$50,000 is the maximum the rules allow — five chips, all in the $10,000 slot. We could not find an official record of top wins published by the show, so we don't repeat names or dates from fan sites here.
Where can I buy a Plinko board?
Tabletop and party-size Plinko boards are sold by toy, game and party-rental shops in Canada. Prices change with size and season, so compare a few retailers; for events, rental companies usually include the prize slots and chips.
Is casino Plinko the same game?
Same pegs, different rules. Casino Plinko uses multipliers instead of dollar slots, lets you pick 8 to 16 rows and a risk level, and settles each ball with a random number generator. Our Plinko in Canada page covers it.
Published by Dylan Boudreau.