Compliance with Pennsylvania’s new skill game regulations was nearly 100% successful, according to the Pennsylvania State Police.
Pennsylvania State Police said that troopers have visited over 12,000 establishments looking for skill games since mid-October when the games became illegal across the state.
During those visits to establishments, a small amount of locations were found to have machines, which police said equated to a 99.4% enforcement success rate. 14 machines were seized along with $1,913, police said.
In June, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that skill game machines are slot machines. Under the ruling, only casinos and licensed truck stops can operate them. The court declined to extend the deadline for removing the machines from other establishments.
Troopers said that police are continuing to investigate locations that haven’t voluntarily removed skill games, adding that those investigations are active and ongoing.
Prior to the new regulations going into effect, a Pittsburgh-area skill game distributor loaded games onto a truck to be sent out of state.
“If it’s illegal to do it, then there’s no work,” Rite Touch Distribution general manager Frank Fingers said. “Everyone has to come up with a backup plan.”
Rite Touch Distribution ultimately laid off warehouse workers with the games deemed illegal in Pennsylvania.
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