The Philadelphia City Council last week heard both sides of a contentious issue in a public hearing on city legislation to ban so-called “skill games,” slot-like devices that have proliferated in pizza shops, convenience stores and other locations in the state.
The proposed ordinance would prohibit any business from operating “any casino-style or skill game that accepts cash payment for the chance of a cash reward.” The legislation would slap any business found with the machines with a fine of $1,000 per device, per day.
Pennsylvania lawmakers in Harrisburg, meanwhile, are considering legislation that would tax the ubiquitous machines at a hefty rate, and place them under the purview of the state Gaming Control Board, which would subject their owners and operators to the same rules that govern slots in the state’s commercial casinos.
Estimates of skill-game proliferation in Pennsylvania are north of 20,000 games in place at locations as diverse as laundromats. The state’s casinos, as well as the American Gaming Association and the Association of Gaming Equipment Manufacturers, have been calling for a ban on the machines for years, noting that they operate with no oversight to assure fairness, anti-money laundering or problem gambling considerations, they operate often in businesses with no age restriction, and they pay no taxes to the state—all of which puts them at an unfair advantage to regulated slot machines at the casinos.
Another complaint is that the producers and operators of the games are subject to no background checks or other scrutiny to which casinos and Class III slot manufacturers are subjected.
City Councilman Curtis Jones noted at the hearing that after the state’s 2017 gambling expansion law legalized a minimal number of slot games at gas stations—some of which are these skill-based games—at qualifying truck-stop gas stations, they flooded the city. He noted that city officials have no idea how many are operating in the city, their earnings, their return-to-player numbers, or whether they are operating near schools.
“Unfortunately, we will get none of the answers because we don’t regulate them,” Jones said. “They go where they want, set up where they want and don’t tell us where they are. We don’t know what we don’t know by way of revenues that come in and should come to the city of Philadelphia.”
Other testimony at the hearing expressed concerns over crime related to the machines, including a 28-year-old shot and killed by police after he was confronted while playing a skill game in North Philadelphia.
There are bills before the Pennsylvania legislature both to ban the machines and to legalize, tax and regulate the games under the Gaming Control Board. Governor Josh Shapiro included a line item in the state’s most recent budget proposal assuming a 42 percent daily gross revenue tax on the machines.
Participants at the hearing included local business owners in favor of their legalization, on the basis they depend on the revenue generated. Corner store owner Andrea Rodriguez, who operates five of the skill-based machines, testified that the presence of the machines has not affected neighborhood crime, and can bring in as much as $300 per week, per machine in extra revenue,
“I never have problems,” she told council members concerning crime. “I don’t see any violence in my community because of that.”
Akash Patel, another local store owner, blamed police officials for any crime related to the operation of the games. “The police aren’t doing their jobs,” Patel said, “We call the cops, they don’t do anything.”
Councilmembers scoffed at the argument, saying that gambling on slots belongs in the casinos.
