Business owners across Pennsylvania are tallying the damage two weeks after a state deadline forced thousands of skill games out of restaurants, bars, social clubs, gas stations and convenience stores. The machines had to be removed by October 13, and Pennsylvania State Police say enforcement began the next day.
The shutdown followed a state Supreme Court ruling that ended the legal reasoning that had let the machines spread, and lawmakers failed to agree on a system to keep them operating, according to exploreVenango. State police told CBS 21 this week that 97.8% of businesses have complied, but investigators are "actively investigating those locations which have not voluntarily removed their skill games."
The cost is landing on the people who run the places. At Spanky's Tobacco World on Liberty Street in Franklin, employee Jody Matthews told exploreVenango that elderly customers used to settle in with coffee and play the machines, buying pop, candy and cigarettes while they were there. Some left tips for the cashiers when they won. Since the machines came out, Matthews said the store lost some of those purchases, employees lost tips and work hours were cut.
"The tip money helped us out tremendously," Matthews told exploreVenango.
In Dauphin County, the owner of Gabriel's Pizza in Susquehanna Township told WHP that the extra revenue from his machines helped pay bills as food costs rose. Susano Jacobo said a vendor pulled the motherboards out of his machines about two weeks ago, right before the deadline, and told him to direct state police to their statement if anyone came asking. He said he has not heard from the vendor or from state police since. WHP reported that Gabriel's Pizza still has the games inside, and Jacobo said he is not worried about enforcement.
State police have warned that machines still in businesses past the deadline could be seized. The agency told CBS 21 it is still investigating locations that have not removed their games.
Republicans see an opening. Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity, the Republican candidate for governor, has made bringing the machines back a central campaign theme, according to reporting on the governor's race. The skill games industry is putting real money behind the fight: new data from the Pennsylvania State Department shows the industry is getting involved in the governor's race, with millions of dollars reported, according to coverage of the contest.
The politics are not abstract for the businesses caught in the middle. Operators who built the machines into their revenue are now waiting to see whether the next governor and the legislature create a legal framework for the games — or whether the shutdown sticks. For now, the state police position is that the games are illegal to operate, and the compliance numbers suggest most owners have folded.
Our Take
This is what happens when Harrisburg and the courts pull the rug out from under small business owners and then wash their hands of it. Pennsylvania's highest court ended the legal theory that let these machines operate, and the legislature — run by the same crowd that lectures everyone about helping working people — couldn't agree on a fix. So the deadline hit, the state police started knocking, and the people who run pizza shops and tobacco stores got stuck holding the bag.
Nobody is pretending skill games are charity. But the revenue was real, and so were the tips. When Jody Matthews says her hours got cut because the machines went away, that is the price of legislative paralysis — paid by a cashier, not by a committee chairman.
What should outrage Pennsylvania patriots is the timing. The machines are gone, and now the skill games industry is reportedly dumping millions into the governor's race — the same industry that was fine collecting the take while local owners carried the legal risk. Voters should ask hard questions about who is funding whom and what they expect in return.
Stacy Garrity has made bringing the machines back her signature issue, and that is a real choice for voters: a state that licenses and taxes these games, or a state that sends troopers after a guy with an inoperable machine sitting in his dining room. The Democrats who run this state had their chance to pass a framework and chose to do nothing. If you live in Pennsylvania, ask your state representative why inaction was acceptable. Then ask the candidates for governor exactly what they will do in their first hundred days — and whether their industry donors will get a say.
