Bucks County Says No to Skill-Based Games in Pennsylvania

The latest blow to the skill-based games segment comes not from a court ruling or an enforcement action but from a township council meeting in Bensalem, Bucks County. During the meeting, locals voted unanimously to block skill-based games that imitate slots but argued that they take a “skill factor” to win.

Pennsylvania’s County Mounts Resistance to Skill-Based Gaming

Public Safety Director William McVey spoke at a township council meeting on Monday and delivered a strong case against the slot-based skill games, arguing that they were harmful and that their numbers had grown exponentially – from some 100 skill-based games businesses in 2023 to 170 in 2024, based on police data.

These machines have been adapted by numerous types of businesses, such as gas stations and bars, but they have also attracted a “criminal element,” argued McVey. Therefore, Bensalem has decided to use the language of Senate Bill 1142, which is still in the Senate and not a law, whereby skill-based games machines out to be prohibited.

Commenting on this outcome in Bensalem, PA Skill, a company that manufactures skill-based games, said that the firm was alarmed about the developments. Mike Barley, a spokesperson insisted that small family-owned businesses and fraternal clubs were to bear the brunt of the measure and hurt the local economy a great deal.

“We take the welfare of the communities where our games are located seriously and agree that the number of illegal gambling machines cropping up in communities across the state is a problem,” the statement further added.

The company insisted that illegal skill-based games ought to indeed be banned, but any such ban ought not to be a blanket solution that also targets regulated gambling machines in the crossfire.

Skill-Based Games Support Small Business But Attract Criminals

The issue with this argument is that the legitimacy of skill-based gambling in Pennsylvania is under assault. However, the company insisted that the cited piece of legislation, Senate Bill 1142, concerned the protection of a casino, where the people of Bensalem should put local businesses first.  

McVey though is not at all happy with the fact that skill-based gaming has proliferated rapidly across the township. Meanwhile, business owners, such as family-run convenience stores said that the skill-based game machines do indeed contribute.

A business such as that argued some of the people speaking to 6 ABC, a media outlet, would run on tight margins, and skill-based games could help tide the business from one quarter to the next.

Bucks County DA Jennifer Schorn said that skill-based gaming venues are often the target of criminals and that any move to ban these machines from the township was meant to act as a deterrent against crime.