Inside the New PA Casinos Skill Games Briefs
136
The continuing war of PA skill games is not going away without a fight from local Pennsylvania casinos. Following the Commonwealth Court’s decision last month to declare the games legitimate, a number of institutions this week submitted an amicus brief to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
The Pennsylvania casinos included in the amicus brief, a document that contains data from a group that is not directly engaged in the case, provided a number of arguments for the Supreme Court to take into consideration overturning the Commonwealth Court’s ruling.
Parx Casino Bensalem, Shippensburg Files an Amicus Brief to the Supreme Court
Pennsylvania skill games are permitted in PA since the Commonwealth Court decided they are not slot machines. That infuriated a number of stakeholders in the regulated gambling market.
Even with the legalization of skill games, the fight is far from over. Parx Casino Bensalem and Shippensburg, among other Pennsylvania casinos, submitted an amicus brief requesting that the Supreme Court accept their request. Pennsylvanians are already seeing the terrible effects of the proliferation of unlicensed, unregulated, and untaxed skill games in their communities, according to Karin Ashford, Chief Legal Officer of Parx Casino.
Crimes have been linked to these devices all across the state. Every taxpayer’s tax income is misappropriated by them, including hundreds of millions of dollars in lost Pennsylvania Lottery winnings that might have funded senior citizen services. The state’s licensed, controlled, and monitored casino sector sustains 33,000 jobs, employs 15,000 people, invests $500 million in local companies, and brought in $2.3 billion in tax income to the state in 2023. The business cannot and shouldn’t be expected to compete with skill games that don’t need any license or control, pay no gaming taxes, or generate any significant employment.
