According to Pennsylvania Capital-Star, Rep. Russ Diamond proposed amending Pennsylvania’s Gaming Act to legalize and regulate skill games before Oct. 13, the date when they would otherwise become illegal under a state court ruling. His plan would tax skill games at 20%, limit them to five machines per site, and allow them only in clubs, liquor-licensed restaurants and bars, and qualified truck stops.
As covered in June, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that skill games are unlawful gambling devices and stayed enforcement for four months, setting up the October deadline. Diamond said the state’s gaming law was written for a “much different era” and argued that the machines should be brought under regulation rather than left in limbo.
The proposal also would lower the tax rate on casino slot machines and online casino games to 49.9%. Diamond said the package would direct money to property-tax relief, the Race Horse Development Trust Fund, gambling-addiction treatment and the General Fund.
He said taxing the machines could produce nearly $1 billion in additional property-tax relief for homeowners. The package would create annual “gaming dividend” payments for Pennsylvania’s 2.87 million qualified homeowners, and Diamond said even without growth in legal gaming, each eligible homeowner would receive at least $702 a year.
In his Lebanon County district, he said the plan would amount to an annual increase in tax abatement of $459 to $602, depending on the school district. He also said the structure would increase relief for 96% of Pennsylvania homeowners and make the benefit more visible than the current school-tax offset.
The plan enters a long-running dispute over how to treat skill games, which have operated in a legal gray area for more than a decade. Gov. Josh Shapiro has backed legalizing and taxing them as a revenue source, but lawmakers have repeatedly failed to agree on the details.
The Capitol fight has produced a wide range of alternatives. Senate leaders have endorsed a 35% tax, Sen. Gene Yaw has backed 16%, and Yaw and Sen. Anthony Williams have proposed a $500 monthly fee per machine that was described as yielding about $300 million a year.
The machines remain politically fraught. Critics have said they are predatory, expose children to gambling and contribute to crime in neighborhoods where they are common.
