STATESIDE
Taxes? What taxes? It continues today with different machines, operators and
technology, but the stakes are much higher. Pennsylvania’s casinos are among the most successful in the U.S. and generate billions. The gaming properties send hundreds of millions in taxes to the Pennsylvania Department of the Treasury. The last thing they want are side operations that siphon off leisure spending. Miller called Pennsylvania the model for all other states
with problems of skill game legislation or lack of it. Suggested four-tier legislation would regulate skill games for manufacturers, distributors, operators and locations. Among operators, current proposed legislation has mixed
support. I suspect multi-generational operators in Pennsylvania well remember how they were cast aside as the sacrifice for casinos. Former Governor Ed Rendell promised to somehow
legalize casinos, even as Philadelphia’s Mayor in the 1990s. To start, Rendell always wanted riverboat gaming on the Delaware River between Pennsylvania and New Jersey. He often complained about the hundreds of millions going to Atlantic City instead of Pennsylvania each year. Rendell failed in the 1990s. His real opportunity came
during his first term as Governor in 2004 when legislation passed. The first Pennsylvania casino opened in 2006. His long-awaited dream has succeeded and expanded
beyond expectations. Casino gaming now generates billions in revenues, despite an outrageous 54 percent land-based slot tax rate, 16 percent on table games and 34 percent on electronic table games. Over 32 years, I have attended hundreds of gaming
Obviously, this sounds great, but Pennsylvania’s 40-year
history of roadblocks dates back to my entry into coin-op. Operators established a statewide trade association, the Pennsylvania Amusement and Music Machine Association (PAMMA). I served 15 years on the Board. PAMMA had two key goals-fighting exorbitant municipal/
state taxes for the exploding video game industry and legalizing video gaming (poker) terminals (VGT) at licensed liquor locations. By the late 1980s, home video games decreased street
location/arcade video game sales. That reduced the focus on taxes and many jurisdictions where I testified as an operator lost their cushy scapegoat. These legislators had come to rely on this money to solve their economic mismanagement issues. I defended my company’s integrity too many times because
we were often lumped in with the unscrupulous. They never recognized that small businesses, the backbone of their communities, could not afford these fees. Many turned to “grey-area” games and PAMMA members
worked hard to finally achieve a viable program. By the early 1990s, we came closest, but legislation for a regulated program again failed. In truth, some rural Pennsylvania operators actually
worked behind the scenes to sabotage the progress. Why? They were making plenty of money in the bars and clubs and wanted the gravy train to continue. It was an underground economy among the operators, location owners and customers.
10 FEBRUARY 2024
convention seminars. Given my own background, I am always amused when casino operators and state legislators praise their role in creating an industry of integrity. I applaud their efforts and want an honest industry, as
regular readers of this column know. However, legislators should understand how some of these very corporations that benefitted from the new laws possibly pushed aside operators and local businesses who have worked and helped pay the bills for their local municipalities for decades. Chris Vecchione, a longtime business friend from those
days, is now Vice-President of Triple Diamond Gaming’s Eastern Region in Pennsylvania. He likens the current “skill” games situation to the Old West. He said, “There are unregulated machines everywhere,
even in malls without a staff to supervise players’ ages and activities. These locations are like speakeasys.” The City of Philadelphia outlawed the machines last
November, but may face a court appeal. One compromise operators could hope for is to allow legal VGTs in age- appropriate locations. Unfortunately, if it replicates states like Illinois, this will
take time. Illinois amusement operators fought for a legalized VGT program for years. In July 2009, Governor Pat Quinn finally signed VGT legislation. Typical of most bureaucracies with little urgency, three years passed before the first fully-licensed VGT began operating in October 2012. We all want lawful games in the public square. However,
the gaming industry and legislators must also not have tunnel vision that forgets those who persevered to create a welcoming mindset for these games.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76
