A Pennsylvania politician is trying again to make skill games legal.

 A senator from Pennsylvania is trying again to get the tens of thousands of illegal "skill games" that are running all over the state to be legalised and regulated.
 Pennsylvania's gambling tax money  February
 Last week, State Senator Gene Yaw started sending out a co-sponsorship memo in preparation for presenting a new bill that would make the slot-like games legal and set rules for them.  Over the past few years, they've spread all over Pennsylvania, into bars, truck stops, and other places of business.  Pace-O-Matic (POM), based in Georgia, makes the games, which are called "Pennsylvania Skill."  They say they are acceptable because skill can make the odds of winning better.

 One example of the skill factor is a feature that lets the player place a "wild" symbol anywhere on the reel grid within a certain amount of time to make a winning combination.

 Casino, business opposition
 There are people who don't like the bill.  The casinos in the state, the American Gaming Association (AGA), and the Association of Gaming Equipment Manufacturers (AGEM) are some of them.  They have fought against the games' spread for a long time, saying that they are illegal and not controlled like slot machines.  One of the main points of contention is that the games don't have any guarantees that they are fair, and there are no rules against responsible gaming or money theft.

 They also say that the skill games don't bring in any tax money for the state.  In this way, the games are unfair competition for gambling slots, which are subject to a 54% state tax.

 Pennsylvania courts, on the other hand, have overturned several rulings that were against POM.  In those situations, the games were taken away by the government.  The company that makes the games always uses these choices as proof that the games are legal.

 Competition that isn't fair in skill games?
 POM has said that the fact that cash flow from casino slots keeps breaking records shows that skill games are not hurting the business.  Operators and slot machine makers, on the other hand, say that they have to go through a lot of background checks and pay a lot of money for licenses.  These kinds of rules don't apply to companies like Pace-O-Matic.

 Skill-game companies have given Yaw a lot of money to help his campaign. For the past few legislative sessions, Yaw has been introducing bills to legalise and control these games.  But none of them have made it to the floor vote yet.  People who own bars, private clubs, small businesses, and charities that get money from the sales back him up.

 Yaw told The Centre Square, "Skill games are a part of the economy in our state."  "You should not ignore them and you can't."

 The publication talked to Mike Barley, who is the chief public relations officer at POM. He said that legalisation and regulation would help 15,000 workers in small businesses and volunteer groups across the state.

 "We want lawmakers to pass this bill because it has helped a lot of these businesses and groups stay open while they deal with rising costs and a lack of workers," he said.

 Ideas for bills
 Under Yaw's bill, you would have to be a certain age to play the games, and each machine would have to be linked to a central system for collecting and managing data.  This is to make sure that taxes are collected correctly.  The tax rate that supporters have put forward is 16%.

 When it comes to taxes, the state's casino owners have been very against the plan.  Skill games are not taxed, so operators sued the state in July to make them pay one. They said that their own 54% tax on slot machine profits is illegal because skill games are not taxed.

 At the National Council of Legislators from Gaming States meeting in July, a group of experts all agreed that the games are against the law.  It was pointed out, though, that it would be hard to stop the games right now because there are thought to be up to 100,000 of them running in Pennsylvania.