Skill games have been a huge topic of discussion in Pennsylvania for the last few months. They look like slot machines, but apparently require some level of human skill or ability for players to earn a payout. The PA Supreme Court in June decided skill games are actually slot games and should be treated as such.

That includes the regulations that go with them. That’s going to have a huge effect on our local veterans organizations and social clubs that rely on the income from the skill games. The PA Supreme Court gave the legislature 120 days to come up with rules for these skill games.

So far, nothing has happened and the deadline is fast approaching. Attorney Clint Barkdoll said, “This is not going to get done. I’m sending a memo out to various clients today saying you need to get these machines out of there by next Tuesday, and you better be calling your vendor to make the arrangements because here’s two other layers to this.”

The PA Senate is on recess until after the deadline has passed. Barkdoll said, “So, barring some special session being called tomorrow or Monday or Tuesday, the vote won’t happen.”

Who would call the special session? Barkdoll said, “It could be the governor. It could be Senate and House leadership. It could be any combination of those. But it looks like there’s no appetite to do it.”

PA lawmakers were pitching the idea to file an emergency petition to the Supreme Court, asking for more time because there was bipartisan support for that.

Skill Game Screen

Well, yesterday afternoon, the lawmakers that filed that petition quietly withdrew the petition.

Barkdoll said, “So that’s not even before the Supreme Court now. Now the skill game companies, they have filed a separate petition to the Supreme Court asking that the deadline be extended, and I have a feeling the Supreme Court will laugh at that when it hits their desk. So I think this thing is done. Yes, there’s that small game of chance reform that still has not been enacted. So that may take several weeks if it gets to the governor’s desk. But if you’re the private bar or the gas stations, or or the laundromats, the grocery stores, they’re in the pizza shops, they need to get out of there, and these places are going to feel a real pinch starting next week.”

Can a business just close and lock the doors and say they’re done if the machines are sitting in there?

Barkdoll said, “No, according to the state police, the machines must be out of your building. They’re treating the machine like a slot machine, and it’s contraband to even have possession of it. And that’s why I’m advising people now: if you have one, you should be contacting those vendors to see what’s the plan to get these physically out of the building by next Tuesday.”

Michele Jansen of News Talk 103.7FM noted, “I’m not sure if those vendors are necessarily obligated to do that, are they? This could befall all on the people who have these machines in their business, correct?”

Barkdoll declared, “It’s a mess. I don’t know what the vendors will say, and do they have the infrastructure to go around and round up 70,000 of these machines on Tuesday? I mean, whether it’s the vendor or some other entity, I mean, you would need an army of people and 18-wheeler trucks and storage to get all of this done in such a short period of time.”

Jansen said, “If if they don’t get that small game chance thing through, what a lie that was just to quell people’s political ire.“

Barkdoll said, “I talked to three local clubs yesterday that have the skill games that would be beneficiaries then of the small game of chance reform if that passes, and all three of them said if they went to the new cap under the small games of chance reform, that would make up roughly 70 to 80% of the revenue they would otherwise lose by eliminating the skill games in these businesses. So that’s it’s not a total wash, but it’s pretty good. I mean, it doesn’t exactly offset it, but it would help. But again, one of the practical problems here is because the small game of chance reform will not be implemented in time for this happening on Tuesday or Wednesday. You’re going to have a gap, maybe of weeks, maybe even months until that small game of chance reform legislation is enacted. And if you’re at one of these clubs, you could find yourself in a real bind here for a couple of months.”

Could a business put a pod on the property for the skill game machines?

Barkdoll said, “It’s an interesting question, and I don’t know. I don’t think state police or the attorney general have provided guidance on that. There are six county, district attorneys. They’ve sent a letter to the AG and PSP asking for guidance on these exact kind of questions.”

Pat Ryan of News Talk said, “I can’t believe how incompetent. And this starts from the governor. All right, this guy could lead the charge on this and what are we doing? We just do we just twisting in the wind out here.”

Who withdrew the petition to the PA Supreme Court?

Barkdoll said, “It’s so odd. So this was a bipartisan group of House and Senate lawmakers that filed this emergency petition, saying we’ve got a lot of people on board to get something done, but we need more time, so extend the deadline. And that was kind of the line you would hear from rank and file lawmakers the last week or so. Well, for reasons that aren’t known, that bipartisan group of lawmakers they withdrew their petition yesterday, so the Supreme Court never even got to consider it.

PA Representative Rob Kauffman said, “I did not I did not know about that. I would say that dozens of us penned an open letter to the Supreme Court yesterday asking them to extend this, so the skill games operators still have their appeal. We penned the open letter, so that is still out there to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. I will say, it is definitely frustrating in Harrisburg. We attempted on multiple occasions this week to bring an amendment to the floor regarding skill games. Russ Diamond out of Lebanon County had attempted to bring amendments dealing with skill games. Now, was it was his amendment the best thing ever? No, but we wanted to have that conversation on the House floor where it belongs right now, but instead the House Democrats they bobbed and weaved around that. They ruled the the amendment out of order, and then we appealed the ruling of the chair. And bottom line is they made sure that we couldn’t have the skill games conversation on the floor and deal with an amendment that would have addressed this issue. That was at the same time we were doing all the small games of chance updates.”

Jansen said, “I’ve talked to local service organizations. I know how they were suffering, even outside of the whole skill game argument, well, all of a sudden we get this unanimous bipartisan vote in the Senate, and my feeling is this is purely political on their part. It was we’re going to get a lot of ire and blowback, and both sides realizing they’re going to get it in the midterms. So here we are, we’re going to placate at least you guys and the taverns that have licenses and also have those games of chance, but now it gets where to the House? Like, why wouldn’t that be just taken up and passed quickly?”

Kauffman said, “They took the bill that was from the Senate, and then I believe they were negotiating other improvements in the bill to add nuances that will help the local clubs and organizations. So it’s not getting signed into law this week, but it is improved. My suspicion is that the last session week of the year, in end of October, will be the week that this gets done, because I do believe those conversations have been ongoing, and there is negotiated improvements in the bill to get it done. All that being said, I do have to highlight that we didn’t get to talk about the real issue of skill games in the House this week, and we attempted to, and every day that we were in, the first 45 minutes to an hour were taken up by resolutions. We were talking about very very honestly, it’s frustrating because you have these folks who don’t understand what a woman is, and we had to just pass resolutions on menopause and perimenopause. Like women don’t understand their bodies and what menopause is. We were also passing resolutions on protecting children and and child birthing centers and breastfeeding. These are the people putting forth these resolutions, spending an hour time every day passing resolutions on these issues, are the same folks who are shouting about abortions and protecting abortions in Pennsylvania.”

Jansen said, “And just to remind, resolutions mean nothing. It’s just like putting out an opinion piece,  an op-ed. Okay, it’s nice to say, not when you need to be doing things that are really important. What a joke.”

Kauffman said, “I spoke with someone who had had a dialog with folks in charge, maybe the speaker, who was very upset that we couldn’t come to a resolution on the skills games. At the same time, they won’t allow the conversation on skill games. These folks, and I’ll say, maybe in both sides of the of the Capitol, we have folks who have not been there that long and don’t understand the maybe the art of the deal or the compromise and trying to come about with a resolution. Jesse Topper, my leader, the minority leader in the House, always seems to be like the adult in the room trying to bring people together. But this one has been a hill I guess too high to to get to right now.”

Ryan insisted, ”And remember, as you think about this, elections have consequences.”