The convenience store chain Rutter’s has filed a lawsuit challenging an ordinance passed by West Hempfield Township, Pennsylvania, that bans video gaming terminals.
The plaintiff is pointing to court documents that allegedly show the township revised an ordinance prohibiting certain store practices to include video gaming after Rutter’s had already informed the township zoning officer of its plan to take advantage of the truck stop provision in the new gaming law to add five VGTs to its West Hempfield store.
Pennsylvania’s 2017 gaming expansion law permits truck stops to add up to three video gaming terminals—slot machines—to each location. The Rutter’s location in the township qualifies as a truck stop under the law.
Rutter’s says it revealed its plan to add VGTs to the zoning officer in December, and subsequently heard nothing from the township on the zoning request. The company points to minutes from the January 7 meeting of the township’s Board of Supervisors, showing the supervisors authorized the ordinance change to ban VGTs at that point, less than a month after learning of the Rutter’s plan.
Rutter’s officials and township officials both declined requests for comments from the local Fox43 TV station.
