{"id":3527,"date":"2025-11-27T12:26:25","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T12:26:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casinousa.com\/news\/?p=3527"},"modified":"2025-11-27T14:30:06","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T14:30:06","slug":"pennsylvania-lawmakers-set-to-revisit-skill-game-rules-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casinousa.com\/news\/pennsylvania-lawmakers-set-to-revisit-skill-game-rules-in-2026","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania Lawmakers Set to Revisit Skill-Game Rules in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.casinousa.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/10\/skill-based-gaming-machines.jpg\" alt=\"Skilled Based Gaming Machines\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-751\" width=\"300\" title=\"Pennsylvania Lawmakers Set to Revisit Skill-Game Rules in 2026\"\/><strong>Summary:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Skill games remain untaxed and unregulated after lawmakers failed to reach a deal in this year\u2019s budget.<\/li>\n<li>Competing tax proposals, heavy lobbying, and a pending state Supreme Court case continue to complicate the issue.<\/li>\n<li>Both Gov. Shapiro and legislative leaders say skill-game reform will be a priority next year as the state faces a budget gap.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Pennsylvania lawmakers wrapped up this year\u2019s budget without settling one of the state\u2019s most complicated issues: <strong>what to do about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casinousa.com\/news\/pennsylvanians-against-gaming-expansion-call-for-illegal-skill-game-crackdown\">slot-style skill games<\/a><\/strong>. <\/p>\n<p>The widely-spread found everywhere from bars to gas stations <strong>continue to sit in a legal gray zone, untaxed and unregulated<\/strong>. Even though both parties agree something needs to change, the topic slipped through the cracks again.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Gov. Josh Shapiro<\/strong> has already said the matter is \u201c<em>unfinished business<\/em>\u201d and legislative leaders signaled they\u2019re ready to revisit it in 2026. <\/p>\n<p>As <strong>Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman<\/strong> put it after the budget vote, <\/p>\n<blockquote><p>This building has a long history of going through gaming debates, and they are very complex and very tedious and very difficult. I certainly believe gaming reform is, and must be, an important policy initiative going forward.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h2 id=\"money-at-the-center\">Money at the Center<\/h2>\n<p>Money is a big part of the debate. The state is facing a structural deficit, and expanding gambling taxes is one way to raise revenue without touching income or sales taxes. <\/p>\n<p>Pennsylvania already brought in a record $2.7 billion last year from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casinousa.com\/games\">casino games<\/a>, online gambling, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casinousa.com\/games\/sports-betting\">sports betting<\/a>, and truck stop video terminals. Tapping into the skill-games market could add more.<\/p>\n<p>Shapiro <strong>suggested taxing the games at 52% of gross revenue<\/strong>, estimating the state could gain about $400 million. Senate Republicans countered with a 35% rate. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Casinos, which pay 55% on electronic games<\/strong>, want skill games taxed at a similar level. None of these proposals gained traction.<\/p>\n<p>Lobbyists for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casinousa.com\/news\/pa-skill-games-supplier-files-lawsuit-over-illegal-gambling-concerns\">Pace-O-Matic<\/a>, a major skill-games company, pushed for a bill from Sen. Gene Yaw that included a 16% tax instead. As negotiations stalled, Yaw and Democratic Sen. Anthony Williams floated a different idea: a flat $500 monthly fee per machine. They said it could bring in around $300 million while avoiding a tax fight. Williams added that the bill also aims to rein in \u201cstop-and-go\u201d stores in Philadelphia that can double as illegal gaming hubs.<\/p>\n<p>On top of the political wrangling, the state Supreme Court is weighing whether these machines should legally count as gambling. <\/p>\n<div style=\"position:relative;height:0;padding-bottom:56.25%\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/eQA4YT5rPxE?rel=0&amp;showinfo=0?ecver=2\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"position:absolute;width:100%;height:100%;left:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The attorney general\u2019s office argued, \u201c<em>A game that looks like a slot machine, and plays like a slot machine, is a slot machine<\/em>\u201d. Pace-O-Matic\u2019s attorney <strong>Matthew Haverstick<\/strong> said the devices follow established legal precedent and added, <\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Why (do skill machines) make money? Because somebody really brilliant came up with an idea that they tested \u2026 It was held to be legal, and nobody appealed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Lobbying pressure has only intensified. Casinos, sports-betting companies, video terminal operators, and skill-games manufacturers all have something at stake, and they spend heavily to make sure lawmakers pay attention. Over the last two years, <strong>gaming interests donated $1.7 million to top state leaders and the governor<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>While skill-games reform didn\u2019t make the cut this year, one thing is for certain: the debate is far from over.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Summary: Skill games remain untaxed and unregulated after lawmakers failed to reach a deal in this year\u2019s budget. Competing tax proposals, heavy lobbying, and a pending state Supreme Court case continue to complicate the issue. Both Gov. Shapiro and legislative leaders say skill-game reform will be a priority next year as the state faces a [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,5,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-industry","category-legal"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Pennsylvania Lawmakers Set to Revisit Skill-Game Rules in 2026<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Pennsylvania\u2019s budget did not resolve the skill-game regulation issue, but state leaders claim the debate is far from being over, looking ahead to new proposals and a court ruling.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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