Across Pennsylvania this week, you could see the signs that the skill games industry's long winning streak had come to an end.
Machines stashed aside for pickup at a tobacco outlet. Powered-down devices in the corner of a pizza shop. The empty space at a gas station convenience store, filled now with a display of Black and Gold merchandise. An emptied-out and shuttered “skill parlor” behind a gas station.
As of midnight Tuesday, bars, clubs and shops that offer so-called “skill games” were slated to become targets for law enforcement if owners haven’t removed the devices.
The machines’ fate was decided after Harrisburg missed a Tuesday deadline to provide a legal framework for the slot-machine-like cabinets, once the state Supreme Court ruled that the law as currently written did not permit them.
Kish Patel, who owns 19 convenience stores in western Pennsylvania, from Allegheny County to Erie, said his vendor couldn’t collect the skill games in time, so he’s doing it himself.
“I got my trailer out, and we're just gonna have to move them ourselves [into] a storage facility that we got,” Patel said Tuesday afternoon. “We've never tried to screw with the law or do anything illegal, and we don't want to be known for that either, so we're trying to play it safe rather than sorry.”
State lawmakers had four months to figure out a regulatory and tax structure that would permit the machines. But they remain divided on the matter, particularly on the question of how much to tax the machines — and how to use the revenue that the machines could generate.
Legislators and the industry made a set of last-minute petitions to the state’s high court, hoping to delay Tuesday’s deadline. But the court rejected the effort with little fanfare on Friday.
“This whole process is just giving us a sick taste in our mouths,” said Patel, who blamed the legislature for failing to act and said he may consider closing locations and laying off employees.
That's because skill game companies, such as leading software company Pace-O-Matic, had split the device revenues both with operators who own the machines and with the locations that house them.
Not all the machines will disappear overnight: Some amusement operators secured a temporary agreement with the Pennsylvania State Police as long as the games aren’t functional.
Altoona-based supplier DeLeo Games said law enforcement will allow some operators to pick up the cabinets within the next few weeks.
“DeLeo Games has been given until November 4, 2026, to complete the removal of our disabled equipment and machine cabinets from customer locations,” the company said Saturday on social media. “As long as we meet the conditions of this agreement, the Pennsylvania State Police has agreed not to proactively seize our equipment awaiting removal.”
“OUR MACHINES MAY BE INOPERABLE, BUT OUR FIGHT FOR THE FUTURE OF PENNSYLVANIA SKILL GAMES IS FAR FROM OVER!” DeLeo wrote.
When asked how many companies had requested such an arrangement, a spokesperson for PSP did not provide an answer by publication.
And despite the industry going dark, some officials say its luck could change in the future.
Republican state treasurer Stacy Garrity, who’s running to unseat Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, said she’d push to return the devices to small clubs if elected next month — at a lower rate than the one proposed by Shapiro.
“What we'll do is … get all the stakeholders around the table and we'll figure out how to get these games back in,” she said Tuesday at an unrelated Harrisburg campaign event. “We can't tax our VFWs, our Legions, our fire halls, and these small businesses at 52%.”
During their only televised debate, Shapiro reiterated his stance on legalizing the gambling terminals, with a rate on par with the 52% the state charges casino slots. Garrity favors a monthly fee of $500 per machine, a levy backed by the industry.
State lawmakers return to Harrisburg next week, but only five voting days remain between Monday and the end of the two-year year session. Any unfinished business by then — barring a special call to return to session — will have to restart in January.
Shapiro discusses skill games ban
At a healthcare-related press conference in Honesdale Tuesday, Shapiro briefly addressed the removal process underway across the state.
“The Pennsylvania State Police is working with local jurisdictions, working with companies, working with venues to make sure that those machines are disconnected and removed," Shapiro said.
Shapiro said he wants legislators to bring "commonsense legislation" to his desk before their session concludes.
“I would just note that there's still one week, one week left of session. I work every day of the year," he said. "The legislature meets somewhat infrequently, but there is one week left of their session next week, and so they still have a week to come together to find common ground and put a bill on my desk that would regulate these machines, so that our VFWs and outposts like that are able to continue to have them there and get some revenue from them to support the important work that they do."
