Slot Machines Legal In Pennsylvania

admin

All machines legal Oklahoma: Machines 25 years or older legal Oregon: Machines 25 years or older legal Pennsylvania: Machines 25 years or older legal Rhode Island: All machines legal South Carolina: All machines prohibited South Dakota: Machines before 1941 legal Tennessee: All machines prohibited Texas: All machines legal Utah: All machines. Pennsylvania lawmakers enacted sweeping legislation yesterday that authorizes as many as 61,000 slot machines - the most in any state east of Nevada - for horse tracks, resorts and slot parlors. (c) Antique slot machines.- (1) A slot machine shall be established as an antique slot machine if the defendant shows by a preponderance of the evidence that it was manufactured at least 25 years before the current year and that it was not used or attempted to be used for any unlawful purposes.

  1. POM had argued that their machines were a 'game of skill' and therefore not a slot machine under Pennsylvania law. The manufacture, set up, sale, lease, or ownership of a 'slot machine' for gambling purposes is illegal under the Pennsylvania Crime Code, Title 18 Section 5513, and these machines are subject to forfeiture under the law.
  2. Currently, people can gamble at state-regulated casinos, through the Pennsylvania Lottery, for horse races and, after the expansion of the law last year, online and at some truck stops.
Slot

Pennsylvania State Police seized 414 illegal gaming machines in southwestern Pennsylvania in 2018.

Currently, people can gamble at state-regulated casinos, through the Pennsylvania Lottery, for horse races and, after the expansion of the law last year, online and at some truck stops. But the changes didn’t include gaming machines in bars and restaurants. In those venues, if a game is mostly chance, like a slot machine, it’s illegal. But if it requires skill, like poker, it’s legal.

Frank DiGiacomo, partner with the Duane Morris law firm, said the distinction comes from a 2014 court case out of Beaver County. That decision, he said, required the state, which had seized a Pace-O-Matic game machine, to show burden of proof for their actions. Using expert witnesses and tests of skill versus chance, the court determined the Pace-O-Matic required more skill than chance, and was therefore not gambling.

“If the game is predominately skill, it’s therefore not a gambling device and arguably legal,” he said.

DiGiacomo said the recent changes to state gambling law likely won’t impact the number of seized illegal games, unless casinos decide to pursue them.

“Whether or not there comes a point in time when the regulated casino industry tries to get law enforcement to be more aggressive in challenging the legality of these games remains to be seen,” DiGiacomo said.

He said under state law, grant money from Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board is doled out each year to local law enforcement agencies to help curb illegal gambling.

“The purpose of that money is for local law enforcement to seek out these gray market games, or illegal games, and seize them and have them not being operated,” DiGiacomo said. Nine such grants were awarded, according to the PGCB’s 2017-18 annual report.