Claw Machine Name Picker

An arcade claw that actually wins

Real crane machines are calibrated to fail most of the time; the grip strength is set so the claw only closes properly on a small fraction of attempts. This one has no such setting. Every grab returns a name, chosen with your browser's random number generator across your whole list, with equal odds for every entry. The animation is theatre — the draw underneath it is straight arithmetic.

Best for medium lists

The prize pile shows up to fourteen balls at once, which is roughly a small class, a project team, or a family game night. Longer lists still work perfectly — every name stays in the draw even when its ball is not on screen — but if you are running a fifty-name raffle the magic hat reads more cleanly from the back of a room.

Where it earns its keep

Reward time in a classroom, choosing who demonstrates the next drill at practice, picking a secret-santa order, deciding which team member takes the least popular ticket. The arcade framing takes the sting out of an unlucky result, which is exactly why it works so well with children and with adults who would rather nobody made the choice on purpose.

Saved locally, shared with nobody

Your list is stored in this browser only and never uploaded. Turn on winner removal to work through everyone once with no repeats. When the picking is done and it is time to actually do the thing, the stopwatch and Pomodoro timer are one click away.