Skee ball (also spelled skeeball, ski-ball or skee-ball; sometimes called skee roll) is a common game found in arcades and one of the first redemption games. It is similar to bowling except it is played on an inclined lane and the player aims to get the ball to fall into a hole rather than knock down pins. Gameplay varies depending on the skee ball machine, but is generally similar across almost all variations.

The player, after inserting appropriate coin payment or token equivalent into the coin slot, is given a set of baseball-sized balls to use, made from either smooth polished hardwood or heavy plastic. Most machines provide the player with nine balls per game; this can vary from machine to machine, however. The machine has a long ramp which the player must roll the balls up.

At the top of the ramp (the ball-hop), there are several holes (usually separated by circular borders) that the player must try to get the balls to go into. Each hole gives the player a certain number of points based on which hole the ball rolls into, the harder-to-reach holes usually giving the most points. When finished playing, the player is given tickets dispensed by the machine based on how many points were earned.

These tickets can be traded in at the arcade for prizes. The more tickets the player earns, the more valuable the prizes they can get. In some installations, particularly traveling carnival midways, prize-winning is achieved by scoring a certain minimum number of points within one game.

This requires an attendant to hand out prizes immediately at the end of games, and is not common in arcade settings. Usually small prizes can be traded up for medium prizes and mediums for large. Perfect or nearly perfect scores earn the largest prize available.

On the other hand, low-scoring games earn nothing, not even tickets.

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