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Attorneys representing the state Attorney General's office are opposing state lawmakers' efforts to stay enforcement of a state Supreme Court ruling regarding skill games until February.
The state Supreme Court agreed with the office's argument, with justices issuing a short ruling Friday afternoon denying an exercise of King’s Bench Authority or extraordinary jurisdiction to extend for another 120 days the court’s delay in seizing skill games not located in casinos throughout Pennsylvania. Requests from state lawmakers and non-profit organizations who have skill games were both denied Friday.
Susan Affronti, chief deputy attorney general, filed a four-page answer to a filing by state lawmakers Gene Yaw, Anthony H. Williams, Danilo Burgos and Jonathan Fritz that seeks to delay the Oct. 14 enforcement of the state Supreme Court's decision in POM of Pennsylvania LLC v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Dept. of Revenue. That stay allowed skill games to stay in operation until Wednesday, Oct. 14, at which point state agencies can begin seizing the games. The lawmakers say they are working on legislation, but can't meet the Oct. 14 deadline. Affronti said in her brief that the legislature has had more than enough time to craft legislation, citing in a footnote legislation Yaw filed three years ago that would have created a framework to regulate skill games.
"Petitioners do not explain why they waited to ask for an extension of this court's stay," Affronti wrote. "The General Assembly has known since June 2024 that the devices in question might be recognized as illegal by this court. And it has been on notice since June 2026 that the devices are indeed illegal and that this court's ruling would go into effect next Tuesday. If petitioners, or the General Assembly as a body, believed new legislation was now imminent, an extension request could and presumably would have come sooner."
On June 15, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania ruled that skill games, often found in taverns, restaurants, social clubs, mini-marts, gas stations, grocery stores, laundromats, pizza parlors, and other businesses, are in fact "slot machines" as defined in the Gaming Act. Slot machines are considered gambling devices under the Crimes Code, and a person commits a criminal offense by owning, operating, or maintaining slot machines without a license issued by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. Only licensed casinos and qualifying licensed "truck stop establishments" may legally possess and operate slot machines or video gaming terminals that have been inspected and approved for operation by the Gaming Control Board. The estimated 70,000 devices scattered around the state are unregulated and untaxed. The court decision issued in mid-June declared them to be illegal gambling devices, but the court stayed the decision for 120 days to allow them to come up with a solution.
State lawmakers were given the original 120-day stay of enforcement of the court order so that the legislature could pass legislation establishing a licensing, taxation and regulatory framework for skill games. The legislature’s last session day before court order takes effect was Wednesday, and nothing was passed by the Senate or General Assembly.
A third application to intervene was filed Thursday morning on behalf of the Skill Games Business Consortium. Attorneys Mayurice Nernberg Jr. of Nernberg and Lyons and John P. Corcoran Jr. of Jones, Gregg, Creehan and Gerace, both of Pittsburgh, note several bills that have been drafted, including Senate Bill 626 and House Bills 2213, 2557, 2795, 2801 and 2802, have all been introduced in recent weeks and days. The consortium is also asking for an additional 120-day stay that extends the status quo until February. On Friday, an Amicus Curie brief was filed by lawyers representing 20 social clubs, veterans' posts, fraternal lodges and volunteer fire organizations asking the court to extend the stay. The clubs argue the reason behind the original 120-day stay haven't changed and should be extended because enforcement of the court's order would harm the clubs through no fault of their own.
"Amici are not casinos," attorney Erik R. Anderson of McNees, Wallace and Nurick LLC in Harrisburg wrote in the brief. "They do not manufacture or distribute skill-game devices. They are host establishments – the Legion and VFW posts, fire halls, lodges and corner clubs where a few of those devices sit. They placed the devices in reliance on the published decisions of the Commonwealth Court. They use the modest revenue to keep their doors open and to fund the charitable and community work their charters require. For many, that revenue is the difference between solvency and closure."
The state Attorney General's office has been warning for the past couple of weeks that enforcement would begin on Oct. 14 – and Affronti argued in her brief that the state legislature has known for long enough that it needed to take action despite the arguments of the social clubs that they need the revenue. Affronti also said social clubs have had plenty of time to voluntarily comply with the court order.
"This court put a significant hold on the ruling in recognition of the reliance interests at that time," Affronti argued. "Since then legislators were free to act and responsible operators across the Commonwealth have made arrangements to prepare for this day by disabling devices and removing them from commercial establishments. The legislature may perhaps choose to revisit the gambling question in the future, and may perhaps leave current law as this court recognized it intended. There is no basis, however, for further suspension of the court's ruling."