delay in the ban due to economic pressures created by Covid-based shutdowns of many businesses .
An effort to declare the ban unconstitutional led to a Virginia judge issuing an injunction to block enforcement of the ban in December 2021 , and the legality of the machines has been unclear ever since .
“ The reach of the new law is enormous ,” wrote gaming law expert I . Nelson Rose , a professor emeritus at California ’ s Whittier College , in support of a scrapping of the ban . “ Virtually every game , both in the real world and online , would be outlawed .”
Lawmakers in numerous states have been lobbied on this debate to the tune of millions of dollars both by companies such as Pace-O-Matic and by regulated operators such as casinos and racetracks . That seems to be a major reason for the lack of consistency in support of either regulating or banning the machines — with the usual partisan political divide not being evident on the issue .
The Virginia Public Access Project concluded that Pace-O-Matic has donated nearly $ 1 million to political candidates in Virginia , with nearly an even split among Republicans and Democrats .
The extent of the division among lawmakers was underscored by a vote in the Kentucky House in early March in which 42 members opposed a bill to formally ban skill game machines , 35 supported it , and 23 members abstained .
That vote came just a day after a House committee had advanced the bill by a 13-7 vote . A separate bill would legalize the games under the oversight of a newly created Kentucky Gaming Commission , with truck stops permitted to have as many as 10 skill games and other businesses limited to a maximum of five .
Still , the two houses came together in mid-March and soundly defeated the skill-based machines by a margin of 64-32 in the House and 29-6 in the Senate . Pace-O-Matic spent over $ 135,000 on the campaign , compared with more than $ 800,000 by horse racing interests , according to the Kentucky Legislative Ethics Commission in 2022 .
Some other states were also running campaigns that would eliminate the issue of skill games .
On one side , a joint federal and state investigation in South Carolina — where only the lottery , raffles and bingo are considered legal gambling — in December 2022 seized more than $ 1 million related to distribution of machines where a player can insert cash and attempt to
“ These unregulated machines look and act just like the slot machines found in a casino , but operate instead in unlicensed environments like bars , taverns , convenience stores and gas stations . State lawmakers and regulators must take action to strengthen and enforce laws protecting consumers from these machines that often lure players in under the guise of being ‘ games of skill .’”
— AGA
“ shoot digital fish .” Such devices clearly are illegal in that state .
That raid was followed a month later by a letter sent by the AGA to the U . S . Attorneys in each state urging further action on such machines . The letter points to the “ Johnson Act ,” a federal law that prohibits the manufacture and sale of any “ gambling device ” unless a state or locality has enacted legislation specifically exempting a product from that law . That could have impact in states with no formal conclusions on skill machines , such as Pennsylvania or Virginia . In New Jersey , the second state in the U . S . to legalize casino gambling in 1976 — and the source of the six-year legal battle to allow all state lawmakers to make their own decisions on sports betting that ended in success with a 2018 U . S . Supreme Court ruling — a spokesman for the Attorney General ’ s Office said that “ determinations on what constitutes contests of skill are both narrow and fact-specific , such as baking or photography contests where the winner or winners are selected by a panel of judges who are using uniform criteria to assess the quality of entries .”
But Wyoming legislators in 2021 formally endorsed the Pace-O-Matic products as legal games of skill that depend primarily on a player ’ s skill , not on mere chance .
The Wyoming law that ended the controversy there led Pace-O-Matic executives in the summer of 2022 to invite five key Pennsylvania lawmakers to what in at least one case was an all-expenses-paid visit to the Cowboy State to meet with their legislative counterparts and hear why the legalization was approved .
While there , the guests attended what is described as “ the world ’ s largest outdoor rodeo .” Pennsylvania ’ s legislative ethics laws do not prohibit such trips , even if a lobbyist pays for them .
According to Spotlightpa . org , a political action committee associated with the skill machine games industry contributed more than $ 1 million to elected officials from 2019 to 2022 .
Opponents of skill games legalization are no less shy about lobbying lawmakers . The same news organization found that a 2019 bill proposing a ban on the games was in large part ghostwritten by executives for Parx casino , the state ’ s leader in that industry .
Coincidentally or not , the stalemate in Pennsylvania and elsewhere continues . And while Pace-O-Matic officials endorse legislation to regulate and tax the machines , the status quo arguably benefits them even more .
16 Global Gaming Business APRIL 2023