Efforts by Republican state senators in Pennsylvania to gather support for a bill to legalize so-called “skill games” plus video gaming terminals in bars and taverns failed as the chamber adjourned until after November’s general election with no VGT bill even introduced.
A draft bill sponsored by Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati was initially promoted by out-of-state lobbyists representing companies like Georgia-based Pace-O-Matic, which distributes games under the “Pennsylvania Skill” brand that have appeared in convenience stores, pizza shops, laundromats and other diverse locations around the state.
Scarnati’s measure would have legalized those games and tax them as VGTs, along with VGTs now in place at Pennsylvania truck stops and new VGTs permitted in liquor-licensed establishments—a measure intentionally left out of the state’s 2017 gaming expansion law due to opposition from the state’s casinos.
Proponents argued that classifying the skill games as VGTs would ban them from current locations where children have easy access to the games, and as in Wyoming and Virginia, the extra tax revenue would shore up the state budget in the wake of the Covid-19 shutdowns.
In the end, Senate leaders failed to muster sufficient support for the proposal before the session adjourned.
“They didn’t run the bill because, obviously, they couldn’t get to 26 votes” in the 50-member chamber, said Pete Shelly, spokesman for Pennsylvanians Against Illegal Gambling (PAIG), in an interview with the Penn Bets news site. “I can’t say why they didn’t get to 26 votes, but they worked like hell to get there. It just didn’t happen for them.” PAIG has led the fight against the unregulated skill games in the state.
Proponents of the VGT/skill-game measure are likely to reintroduce the issue in November.
