The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania has handed advocates of so-called “skill games,” unregulated slot-like devices placed in a variety of locations across the state, another in a line of court victories regarding the legality of the machines.
The court declined to review its decision in a challenge to the seizure of machines produced by North Carolina-based Banilla Games. The decision means the games must be returned to their original owners and can continue to operate.
The court held that the skill games are not gambling devices, and can therefore be legally operated in Pennsylvania. It is one of two cases before the high court. Georgia-based Pace-O-Matic, which produces most of the unregulated skill games placed around the state, is awaiting a decision in its own seizure case. Both challenges were filed by the owners of the business that operated the machines.
The games, which have proliferated in convenience stores, gas stations, pizza shops and bars across Pennsylvania, look and operate like casino slot machines but include a purported element of skill that can help players win. Pace-O-Matic has won in two prior similar cases, in decisions that held the games, because they use skill, are not subject to regulation by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board.
In the Banilla case, the Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement (BLCE) seized 11 machines after undercover operations at several liquor-licensed establishments. The business owner, Pinnacle Amusement, filed motions in Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas and other local courts where its machines were seized. The lower courts held the machines were legal, and BLC appealed to the state Supreme Court.
A bill sponsored by state Senator Gene Yaw would officially legalize the skill games, with a 16 percent tax on gross revenue and regulations including a requirement that players be 21 or older, which would mean most would appear in liquor-licensed establishments and charitable organizations.
Those mom-and-pop bars and charitable clubs, many that depended on skill-game profits, are all behind Yaw’s bill. Casino operators, the Pennsylvania State Police and regulators are against it.
Meanwhile, frustrated with the state’s slow movement toward legalizing the machines, the Philadelphia City Council has voted to ban skill games from most city businesses. One bill passed 14-to-1 in December but was not signed by then-Mayor Jim Kenney before his term expired.
The council’s second effort, Bill No. 240010, passed unanimously March 21. If signed into law by Mayor Cherelle Parker, the bill would limit skill games to businesses that have a casino or liquor license and an area for at least 30 customers to eat or drink.
Shortly after the council vote, G&B Amusements, a Pennsylvania distributor for Pace-O-Matic, and Tariq Jahlil, a 7-Eleven franchisee in South Philadelphia, filed a lawsuit claiming decisions on gaming regulations are limited to the state legislature.
“Pennsylvania Skill (distributor) and skill game software company Pace-O-Matic are alarmed that City Council would pass a measure that will hurt small family-owned businesses,” Pennsylvania Skill spokesman Mike Barley said in a statement.
“We take the welfare of the city seriously and agree with council members that the number of illegal gambling machines cropping up in Philadelphia locations is a problem. A ban that includes legal skill games, however, is not the answer. It will only jeopardize the livelihoods of many city small businesses.”
