{"id":525,"date":"2025-05-16T16:04:57","date_gmt":"2025-05-16T16:04:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/?p=525"},"modified":"2025-09-22T12:09:33","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T12:09:33","slug":"pennsylvania-skill-game-developer-opposes-legislations-high-tax-rate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/16\/pennsylvania-skill-game-developer-opposes-legislations-high-tax-rate\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania Skill Game Developer Opposes Legislation\u2019s High Tax Rate"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li><strong>Another bill to regulate skill games in Pennsylvania has been introduced<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Skill games are slot-like gaming machines that include elements of skill<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>A player&#8217;s play can impact the payout rate<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">New legislation in Pennsylvania to legalize and tax controversial skill games was filed this week in the Harrisburg capital. The leading developer of the slot-like gaming terminals in the commonwealth immediately opposed the bill on claims that it seeks to implement too great a tax.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_352499\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-352499\" data-style=\"width: 858px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-post-thumbnail-858xAUTO wp-image-352499 lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" alt=\"Pennsylvania skill game slots casino\" width=\"858\" height=\"572\" data-src=\"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/6634f4203a710.image_-858x572-1.jpg\"><figcaption>A man plays a Pennsylvania Skill game inside a grocery store. Another bill seeking to legalize, regulate, and tax skill games in Pennsylvania has been filed. (Image: Shutterstock)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">A group of five Senate Republicans filed Senate Bill 756, an act to amend Title 4 (Amusements) to create a regulatory framework for skill games. The legislation comes from Sens. Dan Laughlin (R-Erie), Rosemary Brown (R-Monroe), Joe Pittman (R-Indiana), Kim Ward (R-Westmoreland), and Chris Gebhard (R-Lancaster). Pittman is the majority floor leader.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"callout\">\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">SB756 would allow businesses possessing a liquor license from the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board to house up to four skill gaming machines. Restaurants with alcohol privileges would be able to offer two machines. <\/span><span class=\"s1\">The legislation would additionally allow VGT truck stops to increase their number of the slot-like machines from five to seven.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Skill games are similar to slots but proponents of the machines say they don&#8217;t fall under the regulatory scope of the Gaming Act because their payout rates can instead be altered by a player&#8217;s skillset.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Skill Gaming Business Opposes Bill<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Pace-O-Matic (POM), the Georgia-based company that developed the software of the popular Pennsylvania Skill cabinet, the most commonly found skill game in Pennsylvania, has long called for its products to be regulated and taxed. Miele Manufacturing, the Pennsylvania-based manufacturing firm that assembles the terminals, is also supportive of a legal framework.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Those companies, however, say the 35% proposed tax rate on gross skill gaming revenue suggested in SB756 is too high.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"main-blockquote\">\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">This bill falls woefully short,&#8221; opined Mike Barley, POM&#8217;s spokesperson. Barley said the bill as drafted would take critical money from small businesses that have used the supplemental income to keep people employed and offset higher costs.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">POM and Miele support a tax rate of around 15%. Gov. Josh Shapiro (D), who is supportive of authorizing skill games through legislation, wants at least half of the skill game tax revenue.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The state&#8217;s highly taxed casinos, which paid tens of millions of dollars to the state for slots licenses, oppose skill games on the claim that the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/illegal-gambling-raids-carried-out-in-pennsylvania\/\">unregulated<\/a> and untaxed terminals <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/pennsylvania-casino-gm-says-skill-games-could-lead-closure\/\">poach play from their businesses<\/a>. Casino slots are subject to a gross gaming revenue tax ranging from 48% to 54%.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Regulation Imminent<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">A senior legal official in the Republican Party, speaking on the condition of anonymity, tells <i>Casino.org <\/i>that the forthcoming legalization and taxation of skill games is a safe bet.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Shapiro continues to seek new funding to pay for his higher education and infrastructure spending, and the state not receiving a dime from the estimated 67K skill games operating in the commonwealth will not continue. Laughlin agrees.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"main-blockquote\">\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">These skill games are literally everywhere. They&#8217;re taking quite a bite out of the pockets of both our consumers and our casino businesses,&#8221; Laughlin said. &#8220;Skill games are undercutting our gaming industry. I&#8217;m committed to finding a fair, enforceable solution that levels the playing field.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">SB756 joins Senate Bill 626 in seeking to regulate and tax skill games. SB626, however, proposes a considerably lower effective skill gaming tax at 16%.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/pennsylvania-skill-game-developer-opposes-legislations-tax\/\">Pennsylvania Skill Game Developer Opposes Legislation&#8217;s High Tax Rate<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\">Casino.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Another bill to regulate skill games in Pennsylvania has been introduced Skill games are slot-like gaming machines that include elements of skill A player&#8217;s play can impact the payout rate New legislation in Pennsylvania to legalize and tax controversial skill games was filed this week in the Harrisburg capital. The leading developer of the slot-like gaming terminals in the commonwealth [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":527,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=525"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":528,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525\/revisions\/528"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}