Spin Cycle: Skill Game Debate Within Gubernatorial Debate Highlights Week In Gambling

Welcome to “Spin Cycle,” Casino Reports’ weekly Friday roundup of all things impactful, intriguing, impressive, or idiotic in the gambling industry. Pull up a chair, grab a stack of chips and a glass of your beverage of choice, and take a spin with us through this week’s news cycle …

Keystone cops are coming

Next Wednesday is the day that Pennsylvania State Police can begin seizing “skill games,” the slot-like machines that the state Supreme Court ruled in June are illegal, from locations that have failed to remove them. And with that deadline approaching, the issue of how to regulate and tax the machines became a key point of contention Wednesday during Pennsylvania’s televised gubernatorial debate between Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro and his Republican challenger, state Treasurer Stacy Garrity.

Garrity said during the debate that she supports a monthly flat fee of $500 per machine, which she said would generate about $300 million in annual revenue for the state. Shapiro — who was a 97.3% favorite on Kalshi as of Friday morning to win the November election — prefers to tax the machines at 52% of revenue. Garrity accused the governor of trying to kill off the machines at that tax rate in an effort to help the state’s casinos. Shapiro didn’t directly respond to the allegation and instead focused on where he wants the new tax revenue directed: “I would drive those dollars into the general fund and then use a core chunk of that to fund mass transit across Pennsylvania,” he said.

A pair of bills introduced in late September by Republican Rep. Russ Diamond lands somewhere in between the two plans, proposing a tax on skill games revenue rather than a monthly flat fee, but at just 20% of revenue, a fraction of the rate Shapiro wants.

Whereas Diamond warned that the games are destined to at least be temporarily shut down starting next week, state Sens. Gene Yaw and Anthony Williams and Rep. Jonathan Fritz filed a petition this week asking the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to extend its deadline for enforcement until Feb. 10.

Until that petition is accepted, however, the state police are ready to enforce the new law, posting that “Businesses and establishments must arrange to have skill game devices and related equipment removed.” The note continues: “Powering off or unplugging an otherwise operable machine is not sufficient. To be clear, a slot machine does not cease being a slot machine if it has simply been turned off, unplugged, or temporarily disabled, allowing it to be readily operated.”

More news to know …

• Congratulations to Emely Pascual Alvarez, a table games dealer at Mohegan Sun in Connecticut, who won the second annual G2E Dealer Championship in Las Vegas last week, capturing a $5,000 prize at the end of the three-day competition. “To win feels surreal, as there were so many incredible dealers,” Pascual-Alvarez said.
• The poker world ante’d up a few notable news items this week, so here goes, in quick-hit fashion: Danielle Ford doesn’t have a realistic shot at winning as a third-party candidate for governor in Nevada, but she very nearly won a poker tournament last weekend, finishing fifth at a Charity Series of Poker event; Poker Industry PRO crunched some numbers this week and reported that, while regulated online poker overall in August saw a 2% year-on-year decrease in revenue, the rebranded PokerStars Exclusively on FanDuel remains on the uptick, improving 14% over PokerStars’ numbers the previous August; and Poker Hall of Famer Erik Seidel stepped back into the tournament backgammon world this week for the first time since the 1980s and scored an impressive second-place finish in the $2,500 Super Jackpot event at the Las Vegas Open.

• The Maine Gambling Control Unit published a new set of proposed online casino rules on Sept. 30, in anticipation of the pending launch of the state’s legal iGaming market. Among the specifics: Live-dealer studios are not required to be located in Maine; marketing targeting anyone under the age of 21 is prohibited; and self-exclusion lists will be updated in real time. It remains undetermined whether Maine iGaming will be up and running before the end of 2026.
• Gas isn’t cheap these days, and Terrible’s Gaming launched a promotion that runs throughout the month of October to give drivers in Nevada a little more bang for their fueling-up buck. If you buy gas at one of nine participating Terrible’s Chevron stations, you’ll receive free play equal to 50% of your gas spend (up to a max of $100 in free play) at Primm Valley Casino on the Nevada-California border.

• Welcome to West Virginia, Games Global. The online gaming supplier has been licensed to enter its fifth state (along with Connecticut, Michigan, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania), bringing its Gold Blitz, Masks of Fire, and Thunderstruck franchises, among other games, to the Mountain State. In a press release, Chief Commercial Office Mark MacCombie called it “another integral moment as we continue to make strides in North America.”
• Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Sacramento at Fire Mountain is dressing up and getting into the Halloween spirit, announcing this week plans for Haunted Hall, a themed gaming area set for a grand opening the weekend of Oct. 16-18. “We wanted to take the excitement of gaming and build an entire haunted atmosphere around it — something fun, unexpected, and highly memorable that guests will want to experience and share, beyond the Halloween season,” said the casino’s president, Mark Birtha, in a press release.

House Rules: Insights from around our network

Ruddock Report: G2E’s Radio Silence On Online Casinos

Rozier’s Lawyers Seek Questionnaire Assessing Jurors’ Knowledge Of NBA And Gambling

Resistance To Persistence: Inside The Changing Advantage Slots Landscape

G2E: Casino CEOs Bullish On Las Vegas, Money Pouring Into City

Bally’s Secures $400 Million In Funding For $4 Billion Bronx Casino Project

Greg Carlin Targets Gen X Nostalgia With Vegas Club Casino

Small stakes and hot takes

This week on the Casino Reports podcast Low Rollers, sponsored by TheLines.com, I welcomed leading prediction market journalist Dustin Gouker and gave him a chance to sound off on assorted topics beyond prediction markets. The conversation covered Gouker’s G2E experience, playing pai gow poker, the rapid rise of trading-card pack rips, hopes for iGaming legalization in 2027, and Brazil’s online gambling ban, plus a brief dose of bummed-out Philadelphia sports talk.

I also dug into the latest Bally’s Corp. news and the chances the company’s major casino projects in Vegas, Chicago, and the Bronx will come to fruition, and I looked ahead to NBA season and singled out a 50-to-1 longshot for league MVP who has all the ingredients to win the award.

Full episode:

The Shuffle: Other news and views

8 Washington Casinos Will Stay Open, Preserving 850 Jobs, Maverick Gaming Owner Says [My Northwest]

Scotts Valley Denied Preliminary Injunction Concerning Vallejo Casino [Times-Herald]

Trenton Police Cracking Down On Illegal Gambling Machines Throughout City [The Trentonian]

Waldorf, Fontainebleau And Four Seasons Hotels In Las Vegas Garner Michelin Distinctions [Las Vegas Sun]

Aristocrat, Light & Wonder Still Tops In Slots, Jefferies Analyst Says [CDC Gaming]

Newsom Signs Bill To Strengthen Enforcement Against Gambling, Sex Work [KALW]

As Work Continues On The GSR Arena, Reno’s Gaming Market Is Surging Like Never Before [iGaming Business]

MGCB Issues 33 Cease-And-Desist Letters, Warns Offshore Sites Offer No Safety Net For Players Trying To Stop [press release]

‘I Never Thought I Would Cross A Picket Line’: Some Encore Patrons Who Support Strike Still Want To Gamble [The Boston Globe]

The Bonus Round

Completing the Spin Cycle with a few of our favorite social media posts of the week: