Legislation recently reintroduced in the state Senate would protect small businesses and veterans’ organizations that rely on skill games from higher taxes.
Senate Bill 626 would implement a 16 percent tax rate for skill games operators. The bill includes a regulatory framework that requires games be connected to a terminal collection and control system that ensures taxes are accrued and paid and allows the state to monitor transactions. Establishments would have a limit on the number of machines, and games can only be a secondary source of revenue. All players would be required to have a valid ID.
Penalties for those who operate unlicensed and illegal games and gambling devices are strengthened in the bill.
“There is broad recognition of the need to regulate skill games,” said Sen. Gene Yaw (R-Bradford), who re-introduced the bill. “But if we set the tax rate too high, we’re not regulating – we’re eliminating. Other proposals are being introduced that could drive skill games out of business entirely. Without them, so many of the small businesses, veterans’ organizations, fraternal clubs, and taverns they support cannot, and will not, survive.”
Tax rates proposed in other bills mirror those paid by casinos and are as high as 52 percent.
Yaw’s initiative will direct sole regulatory authority over the sale, distribution and use of a skill game to the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue.