{"id":308619,"date":"2026-10-17T08:54:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T08:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/308619\/"},"modified":"2026-10-17T08:54:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T08:54:10","slug":"with-skill-games-gone-vinnys-philadelphia-cheesesteaks-in-northumberland-county-replaces-former-skill-games-parlor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/308619\/","title":{"rendered":"With skill games gone, Vinny’s Philadelphia Cheesesteaks in Northumberland County replaces former skill games parlor"},"content":{"rendered":"

SHAMOKIN, Pa. \u2014 At a parlor in\u00a0Shamokin<\/a> that used to be filled with skill games, the games are now gone, and the business on North Second Street has taken on a new identity since the previous source of income was banned.<\/p>\n

Vinny Clausi, a former Northumberland County Commissioner, gave his Little Vegas skill-games parlor a makeover, turning it into Vinny’s Philadelphia Cheesesteaks, marking the first day of business on Friday.<\/p>\n


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\u201cThe whole state of Pennsylvania, fire companies, all these clubs, you know, they make a living in that field,\u201d says Clausi.<\/p>\n

The state’s supreme court ruled skill games were slot machines in June and required all establishments to remove them by October 13th.<\/p>\n

Clausi says he had already begun planning for the transition months ago when he saw income from the games start to fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last six months, it got worse, and worse, and worse, because what happened is now they can play on the phone,\u201d explains Clausi.<\/p>\n

The conversion to the restaurant was easier for Clausi because the building already had a kitchen, which he installed as a backup plan while establishing Little Vegas.<\/p>\n

\u201cI built a kitchen behind there, just in case something ever happened, and here it is; they took our machines away,\u201d says Clausi.<\/p>\n

Owner Vinny Clausi says the main goal of transitioning to Vinni’s Philadelphia Cheesesteaks is to make sure his employees, many of whom have been with him for years, still have a place to work.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have employees, okay, I don’t want to bring them on the street, they need a pay, they need a salary, and I did it for them\u201d states Clausi.<\/p>\n

For Clausi, this is his way of filling the void left by skill games. He hopes other businesses can do the same.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon’t keep an empty building, do something else,\u201d remarks Clausi. \u201cEven if you do something and you fail, you still can say I tried\u201d.<\/p>\n

Though its doors are open now, Clausi says the rebranded restaurant will hold a formal grand opening in early November.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SHAMOKIN, Pa. \u2014 At a parlor in\u00a0Shamokin that used to be filled with skill games, the games are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308620,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70],"class_list":["post-308619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308619","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=308619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}