Pennsylvania Skills Competition wins key court ruling, but state appeals
The Pennsylvania Skills Games scored a major legal victory this week when a federal court in the state upheld a lower district judge's ruling that concluded the controversial terminals often found in restaurants, bars, convenience stores and private clubs are not Illegal gambling equipment.
In a 7-0 ruling released Thursday, the federal court unanimously ruled against "games of skill" — games that look, sound and operate like traditional slot machines found in one of the state's 17 land-based casinos. yes.——Does not constitute gambling.
A federal court is considering an appeal of Dauphin County Judge Andrew Dowling's March conclusion that the skill game did not violate the state's gambling or felony laws. For a gambling game, Dowling said, "it has to be a game where chance rather than skill rules."
Just because a machine involves a substantial element of chance ... is not sufficient to consider a machine a gambling device," Dowling said.
The district judge noted that the element of chance in a game of skill lies with the player rather than the machine, and this was the case with slot machines or slot machines. Dowling ordered the return of skill slot machines previously seized by state police as well as cash seized from skill gaming establishments.
HUGE WIN IN SKILL GAME
The state's most popular skill game is Pennsylvania Skills. The game's software was developed by Georgia-based Pace-O-Matic (POM), and the boxes are manufactured and distributed by Pennsylvania-based Miele Manufacturing.
Unlike Vegas-style slot machines that automatically display whether a spin is winning or losing, Pennsylvania Skill Game requires players to identify winning lines. Supporters say skill refers to a player's ability to accurately determine winning combinations of animated reel symbols.
Players are presented with nine symbols and try to connect as many winning lines as possible with three identical symbols arranged vertically, horizontally or diagonally. Players have 30 seconds to click on the terminal before the round ends.
The Federal Court ruled that gameplay means skill is the decisive factor in determining a player's outcome.
“The POM machines at issue in this case were not slot machines as commonly defined,” federal court Judge Lori Dumas wrote in the majority opinion. "Thus, these electronic games are not illegal. Furthermore, applying the current factor test adopted by this court, these POM machines are not gambling devices and therefore are not derivative contraband."
Appeal Pending
Susan Afront, an attorney representing Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry, said the state plans to appeal the federal court ruling to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
Pennsylvania casinos say skill games are drawing business away from their casinos. Slot machines are taxed at an effective rate of 54%, while games of skill offer no tax benefits.
To their credit, skill gaming companies are calling on states to legalize and tax their games to give players more confidence to participate. In Harrisburg, legislation legalized and prohibited the Olympics.
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Source: www.casino.org
