CHAMBERSBURG – In June this year, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court said that games of skill are actually slot machines and need to be regulated by Pennsylvania’s Gaming Act and Crimes Code.
As a result, any business that has skill games must remove them if they are not adhering to the rules.
The Court gave the state 120 days before the decision takes effect to figure out what to do – that would be on October 13.
Has anything been happening?
Attorney Clint Barkdoll said, “There are some reports that small groups from the House and Senate are talking, but they are on the clock. They’ve been given a deadline to do something about this, and if they don’t address it per that Supreme Court order, they are banned as we get into October. And of course, a lot of the clubs and tavern owners, they are pushing very hard to make sure something gets implemented because they argue this is a critical part of their business.”
Could the state police just walk in and shut the machines down?
Barkdoll confirmed, “If that date comes and the General Assembly has not done anything about this, per the Supreme Court order, they are banned. So yes, liquor control, state police, whomever would be doing this, they would be allowed to just come in and seize those machines. But because they’re so prevalent, I mean, there are tens and tens of thousands of these around the state. That’s why the general assembly is going to have to be engaged in this. And of course, the state wants a piece of the action. They’re not taxed. There’s where the state is going to say you can keep them, but we’re going to get X percentage of the sales.”
Michele Jansen of News Talk 103.7FM predicted, “I bet they will do something legislatively, and then you have bills out there ranging from 13% to 52%, 52% being the same as the taxing of the slot machines in the casinos. They need that money, and they know they need that money. They just gave away $100 million a year. Again, I do not blame the people who are receiving it. This is for the 60,000 state employees that they gave 25% pension increases to for the next 10 years. They’ve got to find that money somewhere, so that could be one reason they will go ahead. And I bet they’ll tax it high. There’s a midway 35%. I read there’s two companies that provide these machines. One company’s just going to go out of business in Pennsylvania. They will not sell their machines in Pennsylvania anymore. I think they can even deactivate them. They’ll just go into landfills. And let’s just say, I think it’s October 13. Let’s just say that comes and the silly divided legislature doesn’t have anything. State police can come and shut you down. They said in some instances the machines will just be disabled, and then what people do with them, who knows? Others they’ll come and take them back, so it’s going to be a mess, and it’s certainly going to be a big loss for a lot of these social organizations who’ve come to rely on that to keep themselves afloat.”
Barkdoll added, “There’s also the proposal to charge if you have the machine in your business, you would pay an annual licensing fee. There might also be a one-time fee you pay when you put the machine in. That could be in lieu of or in addition to taxes. And these are the kind of debates they’re having right now in Harrisburg to figure this out. But I’ll just add to that: look at what happened recently with the felony murder situation. They had a hard deadline to get that done, and they didn’t get it done. So, as much as I’m thinking they’re going to have to do something on this, when it comes to Harrisburg and the government operation there, who knows where this might go? They’re down to about two months to get this figured out. We’ll see.”
Pat Ryan of News Talk 103.7FM said, “And they’re in recess right now, right?”
Barkdoll confirmed, “That’s the other thing. They’re in recess until after Labor Day.”
Ryan asked, “How many days a week do they work?”
Barkdoll said, “When they come back, they’re in session two or three days a week. There’s not a lot of time.”
Ryan reminded, “82 days till the midterms. Please get involved, or just get used to it. Knock on doors, volunteer. You’re concerned about schools. You’re concerned about infrastructure. You’re concerned about transparency. You’re concerned about fiscal situations. That’s entirely up to you.”
PA Representative Rich Irvin said, “The Games of Skills lobby actually put a lot of money into three different Senate races, this last primary, and I think the Senate really has it. They’re somewhat sore against skill games. Every one of the senators that was targeted won their primary, and they’ll be coming back in, and so I don’t think the games of skills made any friends in the Senate, and your House Democrats I feel are going to be right in lockstep with the governor and wanting the 52% tax put on the games of skills just like your video gaming terminals your VGTs. So my concern is, I’ve supported the games of skills. I’ve thought that they’re very good for your social clubs, your VFWs, your veterans organizations, and they really kept them afloat. Your social organizations and your fire companies that I’ve talked to that have had this, they would be okay with the regulation, and somewhere between the 13 and 20% tax put on them and regulated. There’s also a proposal of maybe like a $500 per month per machine fee.”
Social clubs could be hurt significantly if skill games are taken away from them.
Irvin said, “Social clubs. I feel like if this is taken away from them, it’s going to be a real slap in their face. I’m not sure if we will meet a compromise. I’m not sure if the Senate is going to have that, hopefully they have that heart for your social clubs out there, and do fight for a lower tax than 52 percent, because I think if that tax would get booted up to to 52 percent, I think that’s really going to hurt the local clubs. One other thing, I think most of the legislation that I’ve looked at with it would take it out. They would eliminate a lot of your skills, your businesses, like where it’s just nothing but a skills game business. So you would be limited by the number of skill games that you could actually have in your establishment.”
Jansen said, “We feel like if there was a way to properly direct it, so that I mean, which way is going to benefit the most people? If you have to have some designation, which the court said you do, where is that going to go? Now we know Democrats have added a lot of spending, and Governor Shapiro wants to add lots of spending to our state, which is already 56 to 60 billion deficit, $6 billion debt every year. How are they going to pay for that? And that’s always my problem too, is all the ways that money from whatever you’re talking about, skill games, marijuana sales, making that legal, they’ve overpromised where all that money is going to go. So I have a feeling we’re sort of in a catch-22 because they’re going to want to get as much money out of it to pay for all these things they promised, and at the same time, we don’t want these places that have come to rely on it. That also does a lot of good in our communities to lose that benefit, 52% I hear, would make it worthless for a lot of them to even keep them.”
Irvin said, “As far as like the budget goes, we balanced this budget on a lot of gaming funding, whether it be the money that went to the pre-Act 9 state employee retirees or school retirees to to fund them over the next 10 years, and there’s other aspects that have been taken out of the gaming fund, and a lot of that money in the gaming fund goes to offset your property taxes and reduce the amount of property taxes that individuals are going to going to pay, as well as your LSA grants that that are actually where your legislator and your senators and your House members have a little bit of control on where that’s going. That truly does go back into our communities and help our communities. That funding is going to be reduced. So the idea is that I really do believe that we need to get into Harrisburg, whether it be a special session, because we’re not back in the session now until the end of September, and with the looming deadline coming up at the middle of October, the idea is: is that going to be enough time to work something through the legislature, or are we going to miss this date just like we did with the life without parole?”
Ryan suggested, “Let that be your guide too, my taxpayers and the folks that are in these social clubs, let that be your guide because your midterms are getting very very close, and what are your lawmakers doing on your behalf? I hope there’s some sort of vote on public record here, when it comes to getting this thing done, and it better be done, and also let that fuel your decision of either get involved or get used to it. Your lawmakers have plenty of time here, and will we be able to see that vote so close to the midterms too? Pretty dangerous territory.”
Irvin agreed, “It is. I mean, I’ve supported somewhat of an exemption for your social clubs whenever it’s come to the skill games, but I’ve run into a problem with our uniformity clause in our Pennsylvania Constitution to exempt your social clubs out of it, or to tax them at a different rate than you would your other small businesses that do have the skill games into it. So I’ve been putting some proposals out myself, not as far as in a bill form, but as in ideas that can go in as amendments. But the idea that we need to get back to Harrisburg and get this done because this is really going to affect not only your social clubs but a lot of small businesses out there as well.”