With their multicolored, flickering screens beckoning passersby to step up and play, the machines are hard to miss. An estimated 70,000 of them line the walls of mini-marts, corner stores, restaurants, and veterans’ clubs in Philadelphia and across Pennsylvania.

They look like casino slot machines and video arcade games, but they are neither. They are skill games. Like their name implies, players must use their skills — memory, reflexes, strategy, recognition — to win cash. They don’t solely rely on the luck of the draw, like with slot machines.

[This story was originally published by The Trace, a nonprofit newsroom covering gun violence in America. Sign up for its newsletters here.]

But as bright and playful as they appear, skill games dwell in a legal gray area in Pennsylvania. The Legislature is weighing whether to tax and regulate the games, and the state Supreme Court later this year will rule on their legality, specifically the question of whether the skill element is sufficient to make them different from traditional gambling.

Meanwhile, critics say the games are serving as magnets for a host of crimes — from loitering and burglary to armed robbery and murder.

Murdered while mopping

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board licenses 17 casinos and 75 truck stop video gaming terminal facilities, requiring them to have secure facilities, trained staff, and digital video recording. Their gambling machines also have to be linked to a centralized computer monitoring system. Businesses that offer skill games are not held to any standards, their critics say. As a result, some are putting their employees in danger by having them pay winners with cash.

On December 12, 2020, Ashokkumar Patel, a clerk at a Hazleton, Pennsylvania, convenience store, was mopping the floor when an armed robber approached. The robber pushed Patel into a broom closet and then shot him in the neck and head, severing his tongue, before running away with $14,000 in skill game money, authorities said.

Jafet De Jesus Rodriguez, 45, who was eventually arrested and convicted for the slaying, had lost $6,700 playing skill games at Patel’s store and knew that it kept large amounts of cash on hand to pay out winnings, the investigation found.

“It would be like going into a casino where there were no video cameras, no locked doors, no cashier cages. Those things are in place for a reason, and these facilities just don’t have them.” — attorney Robert Zimmerman

After Patel’s death, his widow brought a lawsuit alleging that Georgia-based Pace-O-Mactic — the nation’s largest skill games developer — and Miele Manufacturing — a Pennsylvania firm that builds the machines — were negligent because they failed to include safety features in their products. The companies could, the suit argued, require players to redeem their winnings through a ticket terminal that dispenses cash like an ATM, thus removing store employees from the process.

Robert Zimmerman, the attorney for Patel’s widow, argued the case at trial in November. It ended with the jury awarding $15.3 million to Patel’s estate.

“It is the skill games money that is left unprotected, where these people who come into the store know exactly what the pay-off process is,” Zimmerman told The Trace. “It would be like going into a casino where there were no video cameras, no locked doors, no cashier cages. Those things are in place for a reason, and these facilities just don’t have them.”

Jeanette Krebs, a spokesperson for Pace-O-Matic, said that while the company supports legislation to tax and regulate skill games, it is not responsible for Patel’s death and is appealing the jury’s verdict. “We commend law enforcement and the district attorney for apprehending the man who murdered Mr. Patel and making certain he will spend the rest of his life in prison,” Krebs said. “As for the lawsuit filed by Mr. Patel’s estate, we maintain that Pace-O-Matic is not connected in any way with the actions involved in the crime.”

In March, Zimmerman’s law firm — Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky — filed the first lawsuit stemming from a skill games shooting in Philadelphia. The suit alleges that on September 14, two robbers who had been playing skill games at Philly Market in the Frankford neighborhood shot the store’s clerk, 27-year-old Ahmedein Maham, in the face at close range.

As was the case in Patel’s killing, Philly Market also did not have an ATM-style ticket redemption terminal from which to pay winners. “Without those ticket redemption terminals, you’re asking $8-an-hour employees to essentially be casino bosses without the security and safety parameters that are necessary,” Zimmerman said. “The cowards who shot Mr. Maham knew that this store lacked those safety measures, and that he was an easy target responsible for a large sum of betting cash on site.”

Maham, who is recovering from his injuries, declined to speak, Zimmerman said. Meanwhile, his shooters remain at large.

Banilla Games, Inc. of North Carolina, the designer and manufacturer of Philly Market’s machines, is the lead defendant in the lawsuit. The company did not respond to The Trace’s requests for comment.

Will the state crack down?

Efforts to bring skill games under stricter oversight are now playing out on two fronts: Lawmakers in the state House and Senate have introduced bills to tax and regulate the games, and the state Supreme Court is expected to rule this year on whether the games pass muster under state law. The case is an appeal filed by the state Attorney General’s Office and the Department of Revenue challenging a 2023 lower court ruling that the games are legal.

“We empower the black market when we don’t properly regulate, and all of our communities lose on the tax revenue,” said state Representative Danilo Burgos, a Democrat who represents part of North Philadelphia and introduced the House bill in February. It calls for imposing a $500 monthly fee for every skill game terminal, a tax estimated to raise $300 million for the state every year. The bill would also limit the number of games statewide to 50,000 and allow local governments to set their own health and safety standards for the businesses where the games are played.

“When they’re implemented irresponsibly — some places have 10 machines — it becomes more like a gaming parlor,” Burgos said.

Krebs, the Pace-O-Matic spokesperson, called the legislation a “fair regulatory framework” and said the $500 tax was reasonable. “Regulating skill games will decrease the number of games in Pennsylvania,” she said. “In fact, the legislation specifically targets and shuts down illegal games that fuel criminal activity.”

But the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association said the legislation does not go far enough. It has urged lawmakers to include consumer protections, security requirements, and safeguards against underage use in any future skills games legislation.

“Thieves know that these machines have cash boxes. They know that, unlike highly regulated casinos in our state, local shops with skill games generally have little or no security procedures in place,” said Berks County District Attorney John Adams, who chairs the association’s communications committee. “Without security requirements and regulation, these skill games will continue to attract criminals in search of easy money.”

Philadelphia banned most skill games in 2024, citing the lack of regulation and concerns about crime. While testifying in support of the ban during a City Council hearing, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel recalled a confrontation in a North Philadelphia corner store earlier that year. Alexander Spencer had been playing a skill game when two officers approached him and another player to check for guns, setting off a struggle that sent Spencer and the officers crashing to the floor. Spencer shot one of the officers in the leg. The other officer returned fire, killing Spencer.

“Skill games, we believe, are very, very dangerous for our communities, and that belief is premised not only on what we have seen because we are out in the communities, but also on the data that we have” — Mayor Parker’s Chief Legal Counsel Kristin Bray

The City’s ban on skill games proved to be short-lived. In December of that year, Commonwealth Court Judge Patricia McCullough overturned the ban in favor of gaming companies. McCullough cited an earlier court decision that games not located in casinos or at race tracks are not subject to the state’s gaming laws.

Despite the legal setback, Philadelphia officials remain concerned about the damage skill games are doing to communities already struggling with low employment and high shooting rates, said Kristin Bray, chief legal counsel to Mayor Cherelle Parker and director of Philly Stat 360, a City dashboard that tracks how government offices and services are performing.

“Skill games, we believe, are very, very dangerous for our communities, and that belief is premised not only on what we have seen because we are out in the communities, but also on the data that we have,” Bray said.

The City conducted a field survey last year to learn where the games are located and how many are in operation, Bray said. After canvassing 4,700 businesses across 70 commercial corridors, the City learned that most of the machines were concentrated in economically depressed communities like Kensington, Logan, Olney, and Feltonville. More than 50 percent of businesses in low-income neighborhoods had skill games, while only 3 percent had them in the high-income neighborhood of Chestnut Hill.

Officials are convinced that serious reform is needed. “I don’t think this mayor is going to be in favor of anything that’s preying on vulnerable communities,” Bray said. “None of the data that we have seen at this point shows us that these machines help advance public safety or help advance economic opportunity.”

“It’s just a game”

In many Philadelphia communities, the games are popular with players, and store owners have come to rely on the revenue.

Yary Rodriguez, owner of Upfront Grocery in the city’s Kensington section, part of Representative Burgos’s district, has owned two skill games for five years. She estimates they provide her with $2,000 a month in profit. “We haven’t had any problems,” she said. “We heard of some, but we haven’t had any problems. Everybody knows each other around here.”

But James Bennefield, a customer at the nearby Swanson Food Market, said he rarely plays skill games for personal safety reasons. “It’s uncomfortable being in a store,” Bennefield said. “If I’m going to do that, I’m going to be in a casino because it’s safer.”

At the Wilmary Grocery II Inc. at the corner of Wishart Street and Frankford Avenue, a woman who said her name was Ashley was engrossed in playing a skill game. The terminal doubled as a table for her cigarettes and several dollar bills.

“It’s just a game, and it has nothing to do with people robbing you,” she said without taking her eyes off the flashing video screen. “If someone wants to rob you, they’re going to rob you. It has nothing to do with a game.”

Mensah M. Dean is a staff writer at The Trace. Previously he was a staff writer on the Justice & Injustice team at The Philadelphia Inquirer, where he focused on gun violence, corruption and wrongdoing in the public and private sectors for five years. Mensah also covered criminal courts, public schools and city government for the Philadelphia Daily News, The Inquirer’s sister publication.

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