Legislature unlikely to act on skill games until the Pa. Supreme Court rules on their legality

HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania lawmakers say they’re waiting for the state’s highest court to decide whether skill games are legal before they once again attempt to regulate and tax the machines.

Slot-like skill games exist in a legal gray area and have proliferated across the state in taverns, gas stations, and corner stores. They are one of the legislature’s top contenders for new taxes to raise revenue for transit, education, and other budgetary needs.

Leaders tried to reach a deal on skill games last year, but were stymied by warring gaming interests and lawmakers’ conflicting allegiances to them, particularly in the Republican-led state Senate.

This time around, the GOP senators most supportive of an aggressive tax on the skills industry are newly emboldened, after three members of the caucus survived bruising primaries in which skill games interests spent heavily to unseat them.