CHAMBERSBURG — Skill game machines are disappearing from bars, clubs and standalone gaming locations across Pennsylvania as vendors work to remove thousands of machines ahead of a deadline following a state Supreme Court ruling.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court in June ruled that skill games are actually slot games and need to be treated as such. They would fall under the Pennsylvania’s Gaming Act and Crimes Code and a business would need to adhere to all regulations in order to maintain them.
The General Assembly has been given 120 days to figure something out and nothing has been done.
The deadline is tomorrow. Pat Ryan of News Talk 103.7 FM recently stopped at the John Allison Public House, hoping to play a skill game, only to discover the machines had already been removed.
“I said, ‘Look, I’m ready to play a skill game,’” Ryan recalled. “And they look at me and say, ‘They took these things out yesterday. They’re gone. They’re completely gone.’”
The establishment’s owners had considered extending their hours to take advantage of the final days before the deadline, but the machines were removed before he had a chance to play.
The former Little Dipper location along Route 30 outside of Chambersburg, which was a place for skill games, had an empty parking lot this weekend.
“It’s over,” Ryan said. “This thing’s over unless Shapiro comes in at the last second, which he won’t.”
Attorney Clint Barkdoll agreed, “It’s done, and I think these vendors are taking this very seriously.”
Vendors are starting the removal process early because of the number of machines that must be collected.
“There’s over 70,000 of these machines to round up,” Barkdoll said. “They are smartly starting early to make sure this is all done by midnight on Tuesday.”
At least one club in Waynesboro had its machines removed over the weekend, and more will likely be removed today and tomorrow.
Barkdoll predicted, “The governor’s not going to get involved. The General Assembly’s not going to get involved. The Supreme Court weighed in Friday. They’re not going to get back involved. It’s going to have a huge impact on the finances of these businesses, the bars, the clubs.”
Although legislation to reform Pennsylvania’s Small Games of Chance laws has been proposed, those changes have not yet taken effect.
“There’s the Small Games of Chance reform that’s out there, but that has not been implemented yet, and it may be months until that happens,” Barkdoll said.
The situation is particularly disappointing for businesses that have come to depend on skill games as a source of revenue.
“It’s now just depressing and disappointing that they couldn’t get this thing done, and all the people that they’ve left out hanging,” Ryan said, criticizing lawmakers for leaving the issue unresolved before taking a break from legislative business.
Barkdoll said, “It’s very unfortunate how this unfolded. I mean, the Supreme Court gave four months’ notice, and the politics of this. I mean, everything I’ve heard is that there are a handful of senators, Democrats and Republicans, that are very angry that these skill game manufacturers tried to primary some of these senators unsuccessfully, and these senators are saying, too bad, we’re now not going to play ball to legalize this industry in Pennsylvania. And I think ultimately that’s what this is boiling down to.”
With the removal deadline approaching, businesses that have relied on skill games for supplemental income face an immediate financial adjustment, while the future of any legislative effort to establish a new regulatory framework remains uncertain.