Breaking News
Local News

Game over: Local skill games owners scramble to remove machines before deadline

Businesses working on removing thousands of devices by Oct. 14

By William Kibler 5 min read

With state legislative leaders having failed to bring to a vote bills that could have rescued the skill games common in bars, social clubs, restaurants and arcades before an Oct. 14 deadline for removing them, the popular machines' era in Pennsylvania may be over.

The General Assembly is out of session until Oct. 19 and a petition for a deadline extension was denied Friday by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

DeLeo Games has been working on removing its "thousands" of machines from host locations in the region for the last two weeks and has retrieved about a quarter of the inventory for storage, with destruction the fate of the rest, owner Tom DeLeo said Friday.

Asked earlier this week about the state of negotiations on compromise rescue plans that would have regulated and taxed the machines for the first time ever, the office of House Speaker Joanna McClinton blamed Senate Republicans -- a charge that state Sen. Judy Ward, R-Blair, threw back at the Democrats on Friday.

"It's time for Senate Republicans to show Pennsylvanians their plan, so we can move forward with a clear, responsible approach to regulating skill games," McClinton stated in an email from her office. Democrats have been waiting for years for the Republicans to "take the lead on regulating skill games" as they promised, McClinton wrote.

"It's outrageous that Joanna McClinton is trying to put this on us," Ward said. "(The problem was) that the House and Senate Democrats and the governor wanted to spend every bit of that revenue from the skill games on mass transit in Philadelphia."

That plan exclusively to fund SEPTA is unfair to other areas of the state, Ward stated.

Republicans wanted some of the money for roads and bridges, especially in rural areas, she said.

It's theoretically possible that an emergency session could be called before the deadline, and it's possible that the two sides could hammer out a compromise rescue plan for skill games at the last minute, but it's unlikely -- although "hope springs eternal," Ward said.

Lawmakers meanwhile have proposed legislation that would help clubs and nonprofits with fundraising issues, in an attempt to make up for the revenue they'll lose with the ending of skill games, Ward said.

The situation has been frustrating -- on a bipartisan basis -- for many rank-and-file members of the General Assembly, said state Rep. Scott Barger, R-Blair/Huntingdon.

"Our leaders have kept us in the dark," Barger said.

Clearly there was disagreement about tax revenue -- how much to collect and where the money should go -- "but it was not debated," Barger said.

Overall, Barger wondered why anyone would think it's a good idea to take revenue away from clubs, small businesses and fire companies.

Casino-allied interests were reportedly "on the other side," but he believed that casinos are doing well and that the current patronage of skill games doesn't subtract much from that of casinos.

There are some people who oppose skill games based on the belief that all gambling is immoral, but "the toothpaste is out of the tube" on gambling -- with the practice being pervasive, available at casinos and on anyone's cellphone, he said.

The attempt to postpone the removal deadline to Feb. 10 was rejected by the state Supreme Court without explanation.

Three state lawmakers, Sen. Gene Yaw, Sen. Anthony Williams and Rep. Jonathan Fritz, made the application for "extraordinary relief."

The trio are the authors of "compromise legislation" that "would establish a licensing, taxation and regulatory framework for skill games," they wrote in the petition.

"Petitioners need time to have that legislation introduced, and the legislative process will not be complete by Oct. 13, 2026," they wrote.

They were asking for the delay "because widespread seizure and impoundment of devices in the weeks before enactment (of their proposed compromise law) would make prompt implementation of the legislation materially more difficult," they wrote.

"A defined extension of the existing safe harbor avoids that remove-and-return cycle and preserves an identifiable device base for qualification under the new law if the legislation is enacted," they wrote.

Twenty clubs, associations, VFW posts and nonprofits filed an amicus brief in support, while 54 state lawmakers wrote a letter to the Supreme Court, also in support of an extension.

At least one of those 54 lawmakers, Frank Burns of Cambria County, is a Democrat.

"Despite the efforts of many members to engage in productive conversations, the General Assembly has not yet produced a bill that fairly regulates skill game machines, including responsible use for the revenue from them," the letter states.

"The businesses and veterans and social organizations that have come to rely on the revenue from skill game machines should not be ... penalized for Harrisburg's inability to work through this issue."

Local struggles

"We're in retrieval mode," said DeLeo of his skill machines.

The company recently purchased an excavator to destroy the machines it doesn't have room to store, he said.

He's storing some of the machines "in case there is some legislation to keep us going," he said.

The company is extracting the monitors and electrical components from the machines, then crushing the wood cabinets so they can be sent to the landfill, he said.

The "salvageability" percentage is "minor," he said, and the monetary loss is "100 percent," as he doesn't have insurance on the loss.

Ninety percent of his workforce will be laid off.

The destruction is being conducted in an environmentally proper way, he said.

It takes a crew of 12 employees to retrieve the 350-pound machines, using dollies and trucks, he said.

The company won't be finished before the deadline, he said.

"This whole thing is absurd," DeLeo said.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.

Starting at /week.