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A customer plays a skill game at a convenience store in Philadelphia\u2019s Kensington neighborhood.\n Mensah M. Dean for The Trace<\/p>\n
With their multicolored, flickering screens beckoning passersby to step up and play, the machines are hard to miss. An estimated 70,000 of them line the walls of mini-marts, corner stores, restaurants, and veterans\u2019 clubs in Philadelphia and across Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
They look like casino slot machines and video arcade games, but they are neither. They are skill games. Like their name implies, players must use their skills \u2014 memory, reflexes, strategy, recognition \u2014 to win cash. They don\u2019t solely rely on the luck of the draw, like with slot machines.<\/p>\n
But as bright and playful as they appear, skill games dwell in a legal gray area in Pennsylvania. The Legislature is weighing whether to tax and regulate the games, and the state Supreme Court later this year will rule on their legality, specifically the question of whether the skill element is sufficient to make them different from traditional gambling.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, critics say the games are serving as magnets for a host of crimes \u2014 from loitering and burglary to armed robbery and murder.<\/p>\n
A customer plays a skill game at a convenience store in Philadelphia\u2019s Kensington neighborhood.
\n Mensah M. Dean for The Trace<\/p>\n
Murdered While Mopping<\/p>\n
The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board licenses<\/a> 17 casinos and 75 truck stop video gaming terminal facilities, requiring them to have secure facilities, trained staff, and digital video recording. Their gambling machines also have to be linked to a centralized computer monitoring system. Businesses that offer skill games are not held to any standards, their critics say. As a result, some are putting their employees in danger by having them pay winners with cash.<\/p>\n On December 12, 2020, Ashokkumar Patel, a clerk at a Hazleton, Pennsylvania, convenience store, was mopping the floor when an armed robber approached. The robber pushed Patel into a broom closet and then shot him in the neck and head, severing his tongue, before running away with $14,000 in skill game money, authorities said.<\/p>\n Jafet De Jesus Rodriguez, 45, who was eventually arrested and convicted for the slaying, had lost $6,700 playing skill games at Patel\u2019s store and knew that it kept large amounts of cash on hand to pay out winnings, the investigation found.<\/p>\n After Patel\u2019s death, his widow brought a lawsuit alleging that Georgia-based Pace-O-Mactic \u2014 the nation\u2019s largest skill games developer \u2014 and Miele Manufacturing \u2014 a Pennsylvania firm that builds the machines \u2014 were negligent because they failed to include safety features in their products. The companies could, the suit argued, require players to redeem their winnings through a ticket terminal that dispenses cash like an ATM, thus removing store employees from the process.<\/p>\n Robert Zimmerman, the attorney for Patel\u2019s widow, argued the case at trial in November. It ended with the jury awarding $15.3 million to Patel\u2019s estate.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is the skill games money that is left unprotected, where these people who come into the store know exactly what the pay-off process is,\u201d Zimmerman told The Trace. \u201cIt would be like going into a casino where there were no video cameras, no locked doors, no cashier cages. Those things are in place for a reason, and these facilities just don\u2019t have them.\u201d<\/p>\n Jeanette Krebs, a spokesperson for Pace-O-Matic, said that while the company supports legislation to tax and regulate skill games, it is not responsible for Patel\u2019s death and is appealing the jury\u2019s verdict. \u201cWe commend law enforcement and the district attorney for apprehending the man who murdered Mr. Patel and making certain he will spend the rest of his life in prison,\u201d Krebs said. \u201cAs for the lawsuit filed by Mr. Patel\u2019s estate, we maintain that Pace-O-Matic is not connected in any way with the actions involved in the crime.\u201d<\/p>\n In March, Zimmerman\u2019s law firm \u2014 Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky \u2014 filed the first lawsuit stemming from a skill games shooting in Philadelphia. The suit alleges that on September 14, two robbers who had been playing skill games at Philly Market in the Frankford neighborhood shot the store\u2019s clerk, 27-year-old Ahmedein Maham, in the face at close range.\u00a0<\/p>\n As was the case in Patel\u2019s killing, Philly Market also did not have an ATM-style ticket redemption terminal from which to pay winners. \u201cWithout those ticket redemption terminals, you\u2019re asking $8-an-hour employees to essentially be casino bosses without the security and safety parameters that are necessary,\u201d Zimmerman said. \u201cThe cowards who shot Mr. Maham knew that this store lacked those safety measures, and that he was an easy target responsible for a large sum of betting cash on site.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Maham, who is recovering from his injuries, declined to speak, Zimmerman said. Meanwhile, his shooters remain at large.<\/p>\n Banilla Games, Inc. of North Carolina, the designer and manufacturer of Philly Market\u2019s machines, is the lead defendant in the lawsuit. The company did not respond to The Trace\u2019s requests for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n Will the State Crack Down?<\/p>\n Efforts to bring skill games under stricter oversight are now playing out on two fronts: Lawmakers in the state House and Senate have introduced<\/a> bills<\/a> to tax and regulate the games, and the state Supreme Court is expected to rule this year on whether the games pass muster under state law. The case is an appeal filed by the state Attorney General\u2019s Office and the Department of Revenue challenging a 2023 lower court ruling that the games are legal.<\/p>\n \u201cWe empower the black market when we don\u2019t properly regulate, and all of our communities lose on the tax revenue,\u201d said state Representative Danilo Burgos, a Democrat who represents part of North Philadelphia and introduced the House bill in February. It calls for imposing a $500 monthly fee for every skill game terminal, a tax estimated to raise $300 million for the state every year. The bill would also limit the number of games statewide to 50,000 and allow local governments to set their own health and safety standards for the businesses where the games are played.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen they\u2019re implemented irresponsibly \u2014 some places have 10 machines \u2014 it becomes more like a gaming parlor,\u201d Burgos said.<\/p>\n Krebs, the Pace-O-Matic spokesperson, called the legislation a \u201cfair regulatory framework\u201d and said the $500 tax was reasonable. \u201cRegulating skill games will decrease the number of games in Pennsylvania,\u201d she said. \u201cIn fact, the legislation specifically targets and shuts down illegal games that fuel criminal activity.\u201d<\/p>\n But the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association said the legislation does not go far enough. It has urged lawmakers to include consumer protections, security requirements, and safeguards against underage use in any future skills games legislation.<\/p>\n \u201cThieves know that these machines have cash boxes. They know that, unlike highly regulated casinos in our state, local shops with skill games generally have little or no security procedures in place,\u201d said Berks County District Attorney John Adams, who chairs the association\u2019s communications committee. \u201cWithout security requirements and regulation, these skill games will continue to attract criminals in search of easy money.\u201d<\/p>\n Philadelphia banned most skill games <\/a>in 2024, citing the lack of regulation and concerns about crime. While testifying in support of the ban during a City Council hearing, the city\u2019s police commissioner, Kevin Bethel, recalled a confrontation<\/a> in a North Philadelphia corner store earlier that year. Alexander Spencer had been playing a skill game when two officers approached him and another player to check for guns, setting off a struggle that sent Spencer and the officers crashing to the floor. Spencer shot one of the officers in the leg. The other officer returned fire, killing Spencer.\u00a0<\/p>\n The city\u2019s ban on skill games proved to be short-lived. In December of that year, Commonwealth Court Judge Patricia McCullough overturned the ban in favor of gaming companies. McCullough cited an earlier court decision that games not located in casinos or at race tracks are not subject to the state\u2019s gaming laws.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/skill_games_philadelphia_pennsylvania_shooting_legal.jpg\")
A store just outside West Philadelphia advertises skill games.
\n Mensah M. Dean for The Trace<\/p>\n