Slot Machines Legal In Pennsylvania
We can ONLY ship to states that can legally have slot machines for home use. STATE AGE OF MACHINE Alabama Any Machine PROHIBITED Alaska Any Machine Legal Arizona Any Machine Legal Arkansas Any Machine Legal California 25 Years or Older Colorado Pre-1984 Connecticut Any Machine PROHIBITED Delaware 25 years or older Florida 20 years or. Smokescreens and Slot Machines: Berks DA Calls for PA Legislative Action on Unregulated Gambling Devices September 17, 2020 Enforcement of Pennsylvania law when it comes to gambling devices outside casinos ranges from sporadic and scattershot to non-existent. New legislation on the table in Pennsylvania calls for the existing Las Vegas-style casinos to operate traditional slot machines in state airports. The bill, filed on April 2, would effectively change a law passed in 2017 that called for airports to have interactive slots on tablet devices. Top Republicans in Pennsylvania’s state Senate are pressing sweeping gambling legislation that would allow slot machine-like terminals in thousands of bars, restaurants, social clubs and other.
Skill-based gaming is nothing new. It debuted in Atlantic City and Las Vegas around five years ago to mixed success.
However, skill slots are currently the hottest thing in Pennsylvania’s gaming market. Numerous people are playing these slots at bars, convenience stores, restaurants, and other types of businesses.
A PA skill game works a little differently from a regular slot machine. Assuming you’d like to know more about these games, you can learn about them below.
How Does a Pennsylvania Skill Slot Machine Work?
A Pennsylvania skill game looks and plays very similar to a regular slot machine. You begin playing these games by inserting your money into the terminal.
Next, you spin the reels and hope to line up matching symbols in paylines. Most of these games show how much each winning combinations pays through a pay table on the side.
Again, you can see that these games aren’t much different from standard slots. But each can differ from the next regarding the skill element.
Here are various examples on how these slots incorporate skill:
- A pre-reveal mechanism that allows you to see if you’ll win or lose the next spin.
- You must touch wild and/or scatter symbols to activate them.
- Skill-based bonus rounds.
Starting with the first option, pre-reveal slot machines first gained infamy in Florida. They give you an option, or force you, to see if the upcoming round will be a winner or loser.
Knowing the result of the spin enables you to determine whether it’s worth playing. Normally, though, you can only see the result of a single spin.
The second feature, where you touch certain symbols to activate them, doesn’t really bring much skill into the fold. It simply introduces a manual element to the game.
Finally, skill-based bonus rounds can see you do all sorts of things. One example is a memory game, where the slot shows you a series of flashing dots.
At first, you’ll have an easier time remember which dots flash. But these games get tougher and tougher as more dots flash and really test your memory skills.
How Do Skill Games Differ From Regular Slot Machines?
A skill slot machine looks and plays much like standard real money slots. You probably wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between the two under most circumstances.
However, PA skill games feature more action than just spinning the reels. As described before, they see you doing everything from tapping symbols to playing fun bonuses.
Pace-O-Matic, one of the biggest manufacturers of such terminals, designs these games in a specific manner so as to avoid the normal gambling distinction.
After all, convenience stores, laundry mats, and bars can’t just offer a regular slot machine without a license. But they can feature a skill-based terminal without breaking laws—at least for now anyways.
These machines also give you more influence over the results. You might not be able to use your abilities to control 100% of the outcomes. However, you may have the ability to control approximately 3% of the action through skill.
The companies that develop PA skill slots aren’t required to divulge return to player (RTP). Their operators don’t need to offer this information either.
This aspect heavily differs from the regulated Pennsylvania gambling market. Land-based casinos must work with gaming regulators and offer RTP figures.
In What Ways Are Skill and Regular Slots the Same?
These games may offer the promise of skill-based gaming. In the end, though, they aren’t much different than standard slot machines.
Both use random number generators to determine the bulk of the results. Your odds of winning heavily rely on the luck associated with each spin.
For example, a PA skill slot might feature 90% RTP on the spins alone. But it would give you the ability to influence another 5% of the RTP through a bonus round.
With expert play, you could bump the payback up to 95%. Of course, this figure doesn’t differ much from casino slots, which typically offer between 90% and 95% payback.
Another similarity is the fact that the house wins in both cases. Some players mistakenly believe that they can win guaranteed profits if they play a skill-based game just right.
The truth, though, is that they don’t have any better chance of winning at a convenience store than they do a casino. The skill aspect is mostly an illusion that’s designed to float Pennsylvania gambling laws.
Of course, you can always get lucky with a skill-based or regular slot machine and win the jackpot. You’ll be relying on luck to win in both cases, though.
Skill Slots Are Quite Controversial
PAIG also takes exception to the fact that these games aren’t regulated. The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board doesn’t have any jurisdiction over the makers or operators of skill terminals.
Furthermore, the bars, convenience stores, and restaurants that offer these machines don’t pay additional taxes. They only cover standard income taxes on profits.
Contrast this situation to the state’s 12 land-based casinos. Each must pay a licensing fee to operate along with a 54% tax rate on revenue.
This 54% rate makes Pennsylvania one of the toughest markets for earning casino gaming profits. Meanwhile, skill-based operators gain a competitive advantage by paying far less in taxes.
Will Pennsylvania Ban These Slot Machines?
PAIG has made some headway in bringing light to the hypocrisy surrounding skill-based gaming. The group is drawing more attention to their mission of getting these games shut down.
Police in certain Pennsylvania jurisdictions have seized these terminals during crackdowns on illegal gambling. Pace-O-Matic responded with a lawsuit against the Bureau of Liquor Control and Enforcement.
As of now, the two sides are embroiled in a murky legal battle where nobody has tasted victory yet. In January 2020, a Commonwealth Court judge ruled that Pennsylvania State Police can seize skill-based games while the matter is being decided in court.
This ruling doesn’t mean that authorities will seize relevant terminals all over the Keystone State. Instead, it just lifts a ban on the practice of doing so as law enforcement sees fit.
State police argue that the skill-based machines are only a small part of their crackdown on illegal gambling. They’ve only seized a few dozen of the 20,000 skill games operating throughout the state.
For this reason, the Commonwealth Judge saw no reason to ban such seizures. Of course, the games will be given back if Pace-O-Matic wins its case.
Neither side has presented a compelling argument on why these terminals should or shouldn’t be legal. But Florida might provide a preview on what will happen with this case.
The Sunshine State had a problem with pre-reveal slot machines running rampant throughout its borders. The Seminole Tribe, which holds a gambling pact with Florida, argued that pre-reveal games violated its agreement with the state.
After careful consideration, a judge decided to ban these machines. They ruled that pre-reveal slots fall under the definition of illegal gambling.
Pennsylvania doesn’t have a tribal gaming pact with any Native American tribes. However, it does have a licensed gambling market with 12 casinos.
The state may ultimately rule against Pace-O-Matic to preserve its good relationship with the licensed gambling establishments.
Conclusion
A PA skill slot differs slightly from casino terminals by including some element of skill. “Some” is the key word here, though, because these games don’t give you a true chance to overcome the house edge.
You might be able to influence 5% of the RTP through your abilities. But if the base RTP is 91%, you can only achieve up to 96% RTP.
Skill-based slots remain a mixed bag. They include different elements than a standard slot, but they’re also somewhat deceiving in how much control they give you over results.
PAIG is currently fighting against these terminals and believe that they constitute illegal gaming. The jury is out, though, on if these games will ultimately be outlawed.
Enforcement of Pennsylvania law when it comes to gambling devicesoutside casinos ranges from sporadic and scattershot to non-existent.
That means there are tens of thousands of unregulated, unlicensed, and untaxed gambling devices across the Quaker State. Those machines are competing for dollars with the heavily-regulated and taxed legal gambling industry.
A cloud – smokescreen might be more accurate – has allowed the devices to populate Pennsylvania like toxic toadstools.
And that’s the bigger issue, according to Berks County District Attorney John Adams.
Legal smokescreen for illegal gambling devices
The DA spoke exclusively to PlayPennsylvania earlier this week. In Adams’ view, the PA Legislature’s “complacency on acting on this issue” is now the real problem facing the Commonwealth.
“Their complacency on acting on this issue is a disservice to businesses and to the revenue source which could help the Commonwealth. Limbo is causing a monumental problem. To sweep this aside is not doing their duty. It is time for our legislature to act. It is time for the legislature to act, not to kick the can down the road.”
Adams understands the confusion over the devices’ legality largely stems from a single 2014 court ruling, a ruling which has created a lingering legal smoke bomb.
PA Legislature faulted
But he adamantly contends that the bulk of the problem is the complete failure of the Pennsylvania Legislature.
Adams believes politicians have not done their jobs. They should have passed laws leading the state out of the haze by creating clear legislative guidelines.
I think he’s right.
But instead, the PA Legislature has simply waffled.
Some lawmakers are pushing to regulate and tax the devices and make them expressly legal. Others are looking to ban them.
Legal ruling became a large fig leaf for all devices
The Beaver County Common Pleas Court six years ago found that an element of skill was necessary to win the three games found on one seized device taken from a social club in Aliquippa, an economically pinched former steel mill town in Beaver County, near Pittsburgh.
The trial court also ruled that the skill element meant the games in question were therefore not games of chance, such as the licensed slots in casinos or the regulated VGTs – video gaming terminals – installed at some approved truck stops.
However, the court did not address the fact that the only approved machines licensed as casino slot games, and more recently VGTs licensed at truck stops, are considered legal under state gaming laws.
Also, the ruling involved exactly one style of wagering machine – a particular model of a device known as Pennsylvania Skill. These games have a single distributor – Miele Manufacturing of Williamsport, which which also goes by Pace-O-Matic, or POM of Pennsylvania. POM makes the machines using proprietary software from Pace-O-Matic in Georgia.
And then there is this seldom-discussed nuance: The outcomes of the skills games are based on coded software. Changing the software arguably means the game has changed. The court did not address how changing the coding could change its approval of the device.
Injunction led to the spread of devices
With that favorable court ruling, Pennsylvania Skills sought and were granted a temporary injunction preventing the seizure of their machines, a task which primarily had fallen to the PA State Police.
But the unintended consequence of the muddied message conveyed by the injunction was all manner of gambling devices proliferated across PA.
More than 15,000 and perhaps as many as 20,000 unregulated and untaxed devices are scattered throughout the state in gas stations, bars, convenience stores, fraternal organizations, pizza shops, and even strip mall arcades. On the other hand, there are 24,000 slot machines in casinos. The state regulates and taxes them, heavily.
Devices labeled slot machines and injunction lifted
A court in November 2019 labeled skill games as slot machines. Then, the enforcement injunction was lifted in January 2020.
Casino forces and manufacturers catering to casinos united in February to target the machines, attempting to clarify what is legal and what is not. A flurry of State Police enforcement actions also happened in February.
All of that finally prompted the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) to get off the sideline and definitively call the POM machines illegal slot machines under the state’s gaming laws.
But then PA Attorney General Josh Shapiro further increased the ambiguity surrounding the unlicensed machines.
The state’s top law enforcement officer quietly shelved his office’s enforcement efforts against gambling devices outside casinos earlier this year. Instead, Shapiro has decided to await either a court or legislative action.
Even now, six years down the road, the Beaver County court ruling remains under review in higher courts.
Legal mumbo jumbo and confusion
All of which has resulted in a landscape of murky legal mumbo jumbo and confusion, and a law enforcement bureaucracy too timid to act.
But not in every case.
Working in tandem with PA State Police, Berks DA detectives recently shut down an illegal, unlicensed slot casino in tiny Kenhorst Borough near Reading. At the 777 Casino in a strip mall, $67,768 in cash and 57 unlicensed machines were seized. An investigation continues and charges are pending.
Clear guidance is hard to come by
Strangely, local authorities had signed off on the operation, which had opened last December.
But underscoring the legal murk, Kenhorst had submitted a letter seeking guidance and an investigation by PA gaming regulators in late December.
The letter went unanswered.
Adams thinks the PGCB’s failure to pass the letter along to the State Police shows some of what’s wrong with laws and enforcement as they stand today.
“They absolutely should have passed that letter to the State Police,” the DA said.
A spokesman for the PGCB declined to comment, but they have made it clear previously that their jurisdiction only pertains to matters of legal gambling and they are not authorized to investigate gambling operations outside casinos or other regulated gaming facilities.
A State Police spokesman also declined comment. And so did Kenhorst’s lawyer, Jill E. Nagy, though she did provide the letter.
Legislative laissez-faire
All of this further muddies the question of which entities are in charge of investigation of and enforcement against unregulated devices.
Adams finds it particularly troubling that not a single PA legislative member has spoken to him since the raid on the illegal casino.
“Call me. Tell them to call me!” he said.
Elbows out on both sides
And while no legislative action has become law, casinos and POM are readying elbows as the PA budget season looms.
As it has previously, POM continues to try and distinguish itself from other wagering devices commonly found outside of regulated casinos in PA.
First, they held a press conference to showily point to a strip mall in Lancaster County which appears filled with unlicensed gambling devices, operated as Largo at 3071 Columbia Avenue in West Hempfield Township.
A state lawmaker had complained about the location eight years ago, with no apparent legal action taken.
POM, which employs Tom Marino, a former U.S. Attorney and former member of Congress, delivered a packet of information to Lancaster DA Heather L. Adams. She took office in January. A spokesman said the information and any past actions by the office are under review. POM presser images follow:
POM held a press conference in Harrisburg
POM followed that up with a live-streamed press conference – with just three viewers – on Wednesday from the state capitol Rotunda, again trying to set themselves apart from other devices.
The family-owned company presented several supporters. They included two legislators, a charity leader, and a member of a non-profit service organization, calling for “regulation and clarity in the law.”
Casino response like herding cats
Meanwhile, Pete Shelly, the spokesman for Pennsylvanians Against Illegal Gambling, said licensed casinos have drafted a letter opposing any legalization of any new devices. But not all 12 retail casinos have yet signed off on the language.
He said any move to legalize and license the devices operating outside casinos and truck stops would simply be “rewarding bad behavior which is killing the lottery.”
Slot Machines Legal In Pennsylvania Lottery
He also pointed to billions invested in casinos, the employment of more than 20,000 employees, and the tax revenue generated.
Slot Machines Legal In Pennsylvania Counties
“It doesn’t matter what name is on the machine. They are illegal,” said Shelly. And they should all be taken out of service, he added.