They were running some sort of shell game.

I kept reading that as irradiated tortoises and thought, "This is how Gamera starts."

I thought so too, and wondered what sort of bastard collects thousands of an endangered species, and sterilises them with radiation?

I wonder if they went outside and looked waaaaay up, they'd see a series of giant platforms with a plumber jumping across them.

They'd see some elephants.

Reminds me of the Pokémon Hoarder animation