If you walk into a convenience store in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia, alongside the beef jerky and menthols you are likely to see Mexicans wielding two revolvers, leather greaser jackets, and massive diamonds.
These are the symbols on the video slot machines that are now common installations in corner stores across Pennsylvania. Their omnipresence is the fruit of a regulatory loophole, and they are in local politicians’ crosshairs.
Philadelphia’s City Council is considering a ban on “skill game” machines, which they critique as “untaxed and unregulated.” The politicians have casinos, police officers, and slot machine makers on their side, but the small businessmen who own the corner stores are up in arms.
Here’s the story, in brief:
Pennsylvania regulates and heavily taxes slot machines and other games of chance. Only casinos or certain bars are allowed to have slots or video slots, but no such license is required for “games of skill.”
So makers of video slot games have found a way around this: their video slot games, such as “Amigos Locos,” “Gem Master,” or “Cocktail Cove,” also include side games, which are not merely chance. Maybe a player can get a free “spin” if he solves a memory puzzle.
There are other loopholes a manufacturer can exploit, but the point is always the same: install unregulated video slots in corner stores to bilk gambling addicts or other deeply imprudent poor souls of a few bucks.
You can guess why the regulated and taxed bilkers-of-gambling-addicts-money don’t like these machines. The police in Philly say that they create a lawless environment — the folks playing the games tend to show up with plenty of cash on them.
Recently, one Philly police officer shot and killed a man who had been loitering near one of these machines.
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Similar debates are playing out around the country. Springfield, Missouri, in mid-February voted to ban the video slot machines that have tinkered with the rules enough to escape the regulations on games of chance.
Meanwhile, reputable entities including major sports leagues are rapidly embracing smartphone-based sports gambling, which is a far more genteel way of ruining people’s lives without crowding up the corner store.
