{"id":302708,"date":"2026-10-09T00:08:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T00:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/302708\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T00:08:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T00:08:10","slug":"hope-dwindles-for-pennsylvania-skill-game-owners-as-deadline-nears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/302708\/","title":{"rendered":"Hope dwindles for Pennsylvania skill game owners as deadline nears"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ed<\/a>GREENSBURG, Pa. \u2014<\/p>\n

Thousands of Pennsylvanians are preparing for thousands of skill game machines to disappear come Tuesday night. <\/p>\n

At midnight on Oct. 13, as ruled by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in June, skill games and slot machines must follow gambling guidelines. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe amount of people this is going to affect is astounding,\u201d PA Tavern and Players Association President Doug Sprankle said. \u201cIt will be detrimental to Pennsylvania. You\u2019re going to see closures across the state, unemployment, and mortgage failures.\u201d<\/p>\n

The state Supreme Court granted a 120-day grace period after its ruling earlier this year to allow the General Assembly time to regulate the games. <\/p>\n

Since no action has been taken, the machines will become illegal to operate next week. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m no economics expert, but we\u2019re probably going to have to bring more revenue in,\u201d said Michael Saunders, president of Bovard Fire Hall. \u201cIt\u2019s a good support system to help us do things, not only to keep this club running, but also to help with the social hall, fire department, and it covers the utilities for the whole building. Our electricity bill was $1,100 last month. That\u2019s just one. Our gas bill will be high in the winter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bovard Fire Hall in Hempfield Township is one place that has already taken out its skill games. Leaders there have already started thinking about how to get that money back. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf it means raising prices, raising rental fees in the hall, maybe playing more small games of chance,\u201d Saunders said. \u201cWe\u2019re not making a ton of money here. Our goal is to provide for the community. Hopefully, we can bring our business up to where we won\u2019t have to raise prices. That\u2019s the simplest thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

That money helps fire halls, social clubs, VFWs, restaurants and other establishments put on fundraisers and, in some cases, assists first responders. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve helped [the Bovard fire department] buy some equipment over the years as well,\u201d Saunders said. \u201cOther places are very afraid. I\u2019m a member of the VFW [in Greensburg]. They\u2019re worried, and rightfully so.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other places are waiting as long as possible before taking their machines out. <\/p>\n

\u201cApproximately between $3,000 and $5,000 a month is the income from those,\u201d Hilltop Social Club Trustee Bill Heffelfinger said. \u201cWe\u2019re figuring we\u2019ll lose between $50-60,000 a year. Five thousand dollars a month is a lot of money. We use that money to benefit the members, community, and we\u2019re going to have to think of ways to make that up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heffelfinger told Pittsburgh\u2019s Action News 4 that trustees with the Hilltop Social Club in Greensburg aren\u2019t sure how they\u2019ll make up the money yet. <\/p>\n

However, they do anticipate a trickle-down effect. <\/p>\n

\u201c[The machines] not only bring in income, but we also will lose income probably from the bar and our open kitchen,\u201d Heffelfinger said. \u201cIt\u2019s income that we use to give back to the members and to different fundraisers that we have. It\u2019s a real big deal around here.\u201d <\/p>\n

The effects go beyond the dollars and cents. The operators who provide the machines to thousands of clubs won\u2019t have work. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s thousands of jobs that are on the line here that have been around for over a decade or more that will go away,\u201d Sprankle said. \u201cPeople are looking to do Thanksgiving giveaways. They\u2019re trying to give back to their employees. They want to be involved in their communities in big ways. They need revenue to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

While something could be worked out between now and Tuesday, optimism is dwindling. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s still time to do something,\u201d Sprankle said. \u201cWhether it\u2019s a stay or full-blown legislation, there\u2019s options on the table. The biggest thing people can do is call their legislator, senators and representatives and say we need to get something done here.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully, the state will at least delay this until they can make a decision on really how to control them,\u201d Heffelfinger said. \u201cI know there are some bills that are being processed. Hopefully, they\u2019ll get passed. Hopefully it\u2019ll get a good look.\u201d <\/p>\n

Bipartisan measures including HB2213 and SB1079 are still in committee consideration. <\/p>\n

According to the state Supreme Court ruling, there are approximately 70,000 skill games in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GREENSBURG, Pa. \u2014 Thousands of Pennsylvanians are preparing for thousands of skill game machines to disappear come Tuesday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302709,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[124496,524,7612,7159,124498,2917,22366,16414,124497,83,28,30,29,124495,5608,1979,96067,119094,7213,78],"class_list":["post-302708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-bovard-fire-hall","tag-community","tag-deadline","tag-gambling","tag-heffelfinger","tag-income","tag-last-month","tag-member","tag-michael-saunders","tag-money","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-pennsylvania-skill-game-owner","tag-place","tag-skill-games","tag-slot-machine","tag-social-club","tag-thousand","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302708","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=302708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}