Pennsylvania’s grace period on skill game machines expires today, and from tomorrow morning an estimated 70,000 of them become unlicensed slot machines that the State Police can seize. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania ruled on 15 June 2026 that the devices are slot machines under the state’s Gaming Act, then stayed its own order for 120 days so that the General Assembly could write a licensing and taxing scheme, and the General Assembly did not write one. On 9 October the court refused two late requests for more time. The skill defence has failed in Pennsylvania, and the exposure runs to the distributors and manufacturers who own the hardware as well as to the bars and corner shops hosting it.
Key Takeaways
- The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania held on 15 June 2026, in In re: Three Pennsylvania Skill Amusement Devices (No. 50 MAP 2024) and POM of Pennsylvania, LLC v. Commonwealth, Department of Revenue (No. 2 EAP 2024), that skill game devices are slot machines under the Pennsylvania Race Horse Development and Gaming Act and unlawful slot machines under section 5513(a)(1) of the Crimes Code. The 120-day stay on that order expires on 13 October 2026.
- From 14 October 2026 the Pennsylvania State Police treat any such machine outside a venue licensed by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board as unlawful, with seizure and forfeiture of machines, equipment and proceeds, criminal charges and liquor licence citations all available. Switching a machine off does not change what it is.
- The classification came from Act 42 of 2017, which added skill slot machines and hybrid slot machines to the Gaming Act definition and took the skill versus chance argument out of the analysis, so the machines sat inside the definition for nine years while the lower courts read it differently. Texas, Virginia, Missouri and Ontario have all reached the same answer within about a year.
1. Where do Pennsylvania’s skill games stand today?
They are lawful today and unlawful tomorrow, with no further hearing in between. The State Police published compliance guidance on 5 October and a dedicated page at pa.gov/psp/skillgames, telling businesses to arrange removal with the distributors and vendors who own the machines and the ticket redemption terminals, and warning that powering a machine off does not stop it being a slot machine. Governor Josh Shapiro used a gubernatorial debate on 7 October to tell lawmakers to come back to Harrisburg, and hundreds of people rallied at the Capitol the same week behind a tax and regulate bill. The General Assembly is not scheduled to sit again until 19 October, five days after enforcement starts.
2. Why did the legislature let a 120-day window run out?
The tax rate was never agreed, and each side preferred no deal to the other side’s number. The Independent Fiscal Office has estimated that regulating and taxing skill games could eventually raise more than $1bn a year, Governor Shapiro’s budget proposed 52%, Senate Republicans backed 35% in Senate Bill 756 and other Republicans proposed 16% in Senate Bill 626. Licensed Pennsylvania casinos already pay a 34% daily tax on gross terminal revenue under section 1403(b) of the Gaming Act before local share assessments, which is why they pushed for the high end.
Representative Brad Roae asked for six more months in a co-sponsorship memo in September, a request to delay enforcement was withdrawn on 7 October, and Senator Jay Costa said that week there had been little or no conversation among the four caucuses. Control of the General Assembly is on the November ballot.
3. Why does this matter to operators outside Pennsylvania?
Because the decision did not invent a rule, it applied one that had been in the statute book since 2017, and that is the part of this story which travels. Act 42 of 2017 put skill slot machines and hybrid slot machines inside the Gaming Act’s definition of a slot machine, and what the court found was that the Commonwealth Court had been wrong to read section 5513(a)(1) of the Crimes Code without borrowing that definition. Nothing about the machines changed between 2017 and 2026, and nor did the law. Somebody finally took the question to the top court, where Justice Wecht’s majority opinion drew a concurring and dissenting opinion from Justice Brobson, joined by Justice Mundy, who would have affirmed for the operator in the Revenue appeal.
The same reasoning is winning elsewhere. Texas Attorney General opinion KP-0520, requested by Senator Bob Hall in March 2026, concluded that a machine is an illegal gambling device if chance plays any role in whether the player obtains something of value, whatever skill feature sits on top of it. Virginia’s governor, Abigail Spanberger, vetoed Senate Bill 661 and the roughly 90,000 machines it would have licensed, on the ground that legalising them would reward operators who had knowingly disregarded state law for years. Missouri’s courts ruled against Torch Electronics over its No Chance machines earlier this year, and an Ontario Superior Court judge held that GotSkill terminals in bars amount to gambling, after which the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario seized more than 50 of them.
4. What would change this verdict?
Three things, in the order they can arrive.
- Legislation after 19 October. A tax and regulate bill is still possible, and both parties say they want one, but it would arrive into a market where the machines have already been pulled, moved or seized.
- Visible enforcement, or the absence of it. Attorney General Dave Sunday said in September that he did not want to see searches and seizures at storefronts, bars, social clubs and restaurants, so what the State Police actually do in the first fortnight tells operators whether this is a removal deadline or a prosecution programme.
- A challenge aimed at proceeds forfeiture rather than at the machines. Losing a terminal costs a host business a box on the wall, while forfeiting the revenue that box earned reaches its bank accounts, and that is where somebody with money to spend goes back to court.
5. What should an operator do about its own classification exposure?
Build a classification exposure register, with one row for every product in the field that is lawful because of a classification rather than because of a licence. Regulatory horizon scanning will not catch this, because the rule that closed Pennsylvania was nine years old and the event was a court decision rather than a new statute. For each row, record:
- the product and the market, and how many units are in the field
- the instrument that makes it lawful, named, and whether that is a licence, an exemption, an amusement category or a skill carve-out
- whether a court or a regulator in that market has decided the point, the date of the decision, and whether an appeal or a stay is still live
- who owns the hardware, what the contract says about who removes it, who pays for the removal and how many days it takes
- whether the revenue from those units is separable in the accounts, because forfeiture reaches proceeds and not only machines
Then set the review date against the live cases rather than against the legislative calendar. The Pennsylvania estate had nine years of notice and about four months of warning, and it was the four months nobody could plan around.
Sources
1. Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, In re: Three Pennsylvania Skill Amusement Devices, One Green Bank Bag Containing $525.00 in U.S. Currency, and Seven Receipts, No. 50 MAP 2024, and POM of Pennsylvania, LLC v. Commonwealth, Department of Revenue, and City of Philadelphia, No. 2 EAP 2024. Argued 20 November 2025, decided 15 June 2026, majority opinion by Justice Wecht, concurring and dissenting opinion by Justice Brobson joined by Justice Mundy, pacourts.us. Reversing In re Three Devices, 306 A.3d 432 (Pa. Cmwlth. 2023) (en banc) and the POM appeal from 221 A.3d 717 (Pa. Cmwlth. 2019) (en banc). Provisions cited include 4 Pa.C.S. sections 1103, 1317, 1317.1(a) and 1403(b), and 18 Pa.C.S. sections 5513(a)(1) and 5513(e.1)(4).
2. Pennsylvania State Police, PSP Reminds Businesses of Skill Games Deadline, Launches Informational Website, 5 October 2026, pa.gov, and the compliance information page at pa.gov/psp/skillgames (deadline of 13 October 2026, machines unlawful as of 14 October 2026, seizure and forfeiture of machines, equipment and proceeds, criminal charges, section 5513 reaching distributors and manufacturers, and the point that powering a machine off does not change its status).
3. Pennsylvania State Police, Upcoming Skill Games Compliance Deadline is October 13, public information release, 23 September 2026, pa.gov.
4. Act 42 of 2017, amending the Pennsylvania Race Horse Development and Gaming Act to add the definitions of skill slot machine and hybrid slot machine. Effect on the skill versus chance analysis as set out in Saiber LLC, Pennsylvania Supreme Court Rules Skill Game Devices Are Slot Machines, 16 June 2026, and Barley Snyder, Pennsylvania Supreme Court Rules Skill Games Are Slot Machines: What Businesses Need to Know.
5. Spotlight PA, Skill games are gambling devices: PA Supreme Court, 15 June 2026 (estimate of 70,000 machines in the Commonwealth, Independent Fiscal Office estimate of more than $1bn a year, Governor Shapiro’s proposed 52% rate, Senate Bill 756 at 35% and Senate Bill 626 at 16%, and the 120-day enforcement window).
6. Spotlight PA, PA skill games face seizure as deadline looms, 17 September 2026 (Representative Brad Roae’s co-sponsorship memo seeking six more months, the Pace-O-Matic statement, and Pennsylvanians Against Gaming Expansion declining to comment).
7. City & State Pennsylvania, What to know as Pennsylvania’s skill games deadline takes effect, 9 October 2026 (the Supreme Court’s refusal of a late extension request on 9 October, Attorney General Dave Sunday’s September statement, Governor Shapiro at the 7 October gubernatorial debate, the Capitol rally, the 19 October return to session, and the enforcement actions available).
8. Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors, Skills Game Deadline Arrives This Week; PA Supreme Court Denies Extension, 12 October 2026 (two extension requests denied).
9. KDKA Radio, Skill Game delay request withdrawn, deadline looms in PA, 7 October 2026 (withdrawal of the delay request, and Senator Jay Costa on the absence of conversation among the four caucuses).
10. Texas Attorney General Opinion KP-0520, requested by Senator Bob Hall in March 2026, reported by the Public Gaming Research Institute, 11 June 2026 (a device is an illegal gambling device under Chapter 47 of the Texas Penal Code where chance plays any role in whether the player obtains something of value).
11. VPM, Skill games likely to remain outlawed in Virginia, 21 April 2026 (Governor Abigail Spanberger’s veto of Senate Bill 661, her stated reasons, and Delegate Cliff Hayes’s estimate of about 90,000 machines in use).
12. Canadian Gaming Business, Ontario Judge Says GotSkill Machines Equate To Gambling, 4 September 2025, and CasinoBeats, AGCO Seizes Over 50 Illegal Skill Game Machines Across Ontario, 29 September 2025.