Anyone who has bought gas or a lottery ticket in Pennsylvania lately has probably seen one: a glowing machine in the corner that promises cash payouts.

There are tens of thousands of these “skill games” across the state, and until last month, no one could say for sure whether they were legal and, if so, who could regulate them and in what ways.

Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court ended that decade-long legal limbo in early June 2026 by recognizing that skill games are essentially gambling devices. Skill games do resemble slot machines: Players insert money and can win cash. But they include a skill element, such as identifying winning combinations or playing a memory-based bonus round. Manufacturers like Pace-O-Matic argued that this exempted them from state gambling laws – but the court rejected that argument.

The Pittsburgh City Council was quick to recognize a revenue opportunity, voting in late June to require businesses to license the machines and pay the city US$1,000 per machine annually.

The Pennsylvania Legislature is also considering several other taxation schemes. In that respect, the City Council and the state Legislature now resemble the many small businesses throughout Pennsylvania that had until the recent........

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