Two Pennsylvania lawmakers have written to the state attorney general and the state Ethics Commission asking that an investigation be launched into the state Gaming Control Board’s private meeting with casino lobbyists.
The matter stems from a report by the nonprofit news organization Spotlight PA that lobbyists for the state’s largest casino, Parx in Bensalem, met with Gaming Control Board members to enlist their help in battling so-called skill games, which are unregulated slot-like devices appearing in convenience stores, pizza parlors, fraternal organizations and other locations that the casinos and the regulators consider illegal slot machines under the state’s gaming law.
The Gaming Control Board subsequently joined a lawsuit seeking to declare the skill games illegal.
The two lawmakers, state Senator Gene Yaw and state Rep. Jared Solomon, have asked the attorney general and Ethics Commission to review the gaming board’s actions in that it failed to disclose the meeting with Parx lobbyists on its public log, as required by the board’s ethics rules.
“The people of Pennsylvania must have confidence that the regulatory bodies established by the Legislature are acting in good faith and following the law,” Solomon wrote in his letter, obtained by Spotlight PA, to the state Ethics Commission.
Lawyers for the gaming board previously told Spotlight PA that the meeting did not meet the definition of a meeting that required public disclosure.
Notably, Yaw is the sponsor of a bill that would legalize, tax and regulate the skill games, and has accepted tens of thousands in political contributions from Pace-O-Matic, the Georgia-based manufacturer of the machines, branded Pennsylvania Skill.
