{"id":207420,"date":"2026-06-01T13:15:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T13:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/207420\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T13:15:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T13:15:11","slug":"legislature-unlikely-to-act-on-skill-games-before-pa-supreme-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/207420\/","title":{"rendered":"Legislature unlikely to act on skill games before Pa. Supreme Court"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spotlight PA<\/a> is an independent, nonpartisan and nonprofit newsroom producing investigative and public-service journalism that holds power to account and drives positive change in Pennsylvania. Sign up for our free newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

HARRISBURG \u2014 Pennsylvania lawmakers say they\u2019re waiting for the state\u2019s highest court to decide whether skill games are legal before they once again attempt to regulate and tax the machines.<\/p>\n

Slot-like skill games exist in a legal gray area and have proliferated across the state in taverns, gas stations and corner stores. They are one of the Legislature\u2019s top contenders for new taxes to raise revenue for transit, education and other budgetary needs.<\/p>\n

Leaders tried to reach a deal on skill games last year, but were stymied by warring gaming interests and lawmakers\u2019 conflicting allegiances to them, particularly in the Republican-led state Senate.<\/p>\n

This time around, the GOP senators most supportive of an aggressive tax on the skills industry are newly emboldened, after three members of the caucus survived bruising primaries<\/a> in which skill games interests spent heavily to unseat them.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Four Capitol lobbyists said the wins could provide political ammunition to Republican leadership as they negotiate a deal that could pass their divided caucus. Still, state Sen. Camera Bartolotta, R-Washington, one of the lawmakers who faced a primary, told Spotlight PA that outstanding questions before the high court could affect lawmakers\u2019 final language.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re ready with either decision \u2026 and we\u2019re hoping that\u2019s soon,\u201d Bartolotta said.<\/p>\n

Chris Gebhard, R-Lebanon, another GOP primary survivor, made similar comments to PennLive<\/a>, saying he thinks \u201cwhat we\u2019re all waiting for is the Supreme Court ruling. \u2026 That\u2019s a vital piece of the puzzle in terms of what the next steps are.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also told Spotlight PA the issue will be politically difficult no matter what the decision is.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been on record \u2014 a ruling one way or the other does not make our life easier,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no deadline for the state Supreme Court justices to deliver their decision, and it may not arrive in time to clarify skill games\u2019 legality ahead of the June 30 budget deadline.<\/p>\n

Elizabeth Rementer, spokesperson for the Democrats who control the state House, told Spotlight PA that members of that caucus \u201chave always been open to discussing bringing in new revenue funding streams during budget negotiations. Senate Republicans have yet to show the ability to put together 26 votes for any gaming proposal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spokespeople for the Republicans who control the state Senate and Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro didn\u2019t return requests for comment.<\/p>\n

Two cases before the court<\/p>\n

There are two cases involving skill games before the state Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

One dates to 2019, when agents for the Pennsylvania State Police\u2019s Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement seized three skill games, a bag containing $525 and receipts from a Dauphin County bar, on the grounds that the machines were illegal gambling devices and related contraband. It was one of several police raids<\/a> around the region on establishments with skill games, which were not \u2014 and still are not \u2014 explicitly legal in the commonwealth.<\/p>\n

The bar and the skill games supplier, Capital Vending, filed a petition in the county Court of Common Pleas to get its property returned, arguing the machines are games of skill, not gambling devices.<\/p>\n

(An owner of Capital Vending, Joseph Calla, is chair of a PAC that was a major spender<\/a> in the skill games industry\u2019s efforts to unseat incumbent Republican senators in the primary election.)<\/p>\n

The question of whether skill games involve enough luck to be considered gambling, or enough skill that an experienced player can consistently win, has been at the heart of the case as it has wound through the state\u2019s appellate courts. The Dauphin County Court of Common Pleas and Commonwealth Court both ruled that the games are skill-based.<\/p>\n

In the other case, Pace-O-Matic, a major skill games developer and distributor, sued the state in 2018 to get a judgment about whether the games are legal. Commonwealth Court ruled the state\u2019s law regulating gaming doesn\u2019t apply to skill games.<\/p>\n

The court heard both of those cases separately in November. However, the justices will likely rule on them together.<\/p>\n

During oral arguments<\/a>, attorneys arguing for and against skill games agreed on some basic facts.<\/p>\n

After a player inserts money into one of the Pace-O-Matic machines, the money is converted into \u201cpoints\u201d that the player can commit to a puzzle. They can preview the next puzzle before committing points.<\/p>\n

The first phase of the game presents players with spinning reels that land, tic-tac-toe style, in columns of three, and players are supposed to match three symbols in a row. The game can either allow them to solve the puzzle and win 105% of the points they committed; solve it and win fewer than 105%; or it can give them a puzzle that is not solvable.<\/p>\n

Players who lose points can then play another pattern-matching game that, if done correctly, restores the points lost, plus an additional 5%.<\/p>\n

To the question of whether this all involves more skill or luck, Matt Haverstick, the attorney for the skill games supplier, told the court in November that the second half of the game can always be won by a skillful player.<\/p>\n

But because of the games\u2019 preview feature, he argued, \u201cthere is skill\u201d in the first part of the game as well. \u201cYou have to quickly match up on every possibility of what can happen next, whether you\u2019re going to get a winner or a loser, and then decide which one of the winners you want. \u2026 I think there is skill to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Susan Affronti is the senior deputy attorney general who argued on behalf of the state that the games constitute gambling. She told the court in November that it\u2019s not enough for the games to include an element of skill \u2014 they must be \u201cpredominantly\u201d skill-based.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is this game predominantly about?\u201d she asked. \u201cIs it about playing [the matching portion of the game] for an hour to win a dollar? Or is it about the hope of spinning those reels three seconds and getting $2,000? That\u2019s the gambling. And that is definitely predominant here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Further, Affronti noted, to even get to the skill-based matching portion of a game in which players can make back their money, they have to wait several seconds until a new option pops up on the screen.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will say at the bottom, merely, \u2018Touch here to follow me.\u2019 That\u2019s the first time there\u2019s any mention of the skill component, and that\u2019s the only mention. \u2026 It\u2019s not explained. I truthfully don\u2019t know why anyone would touch it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In the other case, Senior Deputy Attorney General Michael Scarinci argued that Commonwealth Court\u2019s previous ruling \u2014 that Pennsylvania\u2019s gaming act doesn\u2019t apply to skill games \u2014 was wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis game is not subject to the kind of regulation, taxation and consumer protections that the Legislature envisions for slot machines,\u201d he told the justices. \u201cTo vindicate the legislature\u2019s intent, this court should conclude that the gaming act prohibits [Pace-O-Matic\u2019s] slot machines.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haverstick, who was also the attorney for skill games in this case, argued on Pace-O-Matic\u2019s behalf that if skill games are covered under the gaming act, a slew of other games have to be too. Also covered under those criteria, he said, \u201care arcade games, are Skee-Ball, are those basketball net things that you can do at Dave & Buster\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the court\u2019s eventual decision will provide legal certainty, it won\u2019t change the material reality that there are tens of thousands of skill games already in businesses and convenience stores across the commonwealth. Removing those machines would likely require a massive enforcement effort.<\/p>\n

Attorney General Dave Sunday has already taken some action, finding two Western Pennsylvania firms in violation<\/a> of state law this year because, as Sunday said, they were distributing \u201cslot machines essentially dressed up as skill games.\u201d<\/p>\n

That finding led to the seizure of some 400 games from dozens of locations in a case that took at least two years to resolve.<\/p>\n

EXCLUSIVE INSIGHTS\u2026 If you liked this reporting from Stephen Caruso, subscribe to Access Harrisburg<\/a>, a premium newsletter with his unique insider view on how state government works.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan and nonprofit newsroom producing investigative and public-service journalism that holds power to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207421,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[139,28,30,29,1478,432],"class_list":["post-207420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-spotlight-pa","tag-top-stories-tmc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}