Back in June, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court said out loud what everyone already knew to be true: those little slot machines sprinkled around bars, delis, and VFW posts across the state are a form of gambling.
Of course they are!
The games’ manufacturers thought that adding a little memory-style minigame would somehow wash away the obvious gambling involved. The lower courts even agreed with this strained logic, but unfortunately for the owners of the so-called “skill games,” the Supreme Court, in an opinion by Justice David Wecht, says the game is over.
The court delayed its ruling for 120 days to give the legislature the chance to patch the law in whatever way seemed right to them, but as is typical with Pennsylvania’s legislature, nothing got done. So the one-armed bandits are now contraband.
There are a lot of suggestions floating around. Rep. Danilo Burgos (D-Philadelphia) has proposed a bill that would make the games legal again, with a $500 monthly fee on each machine, a plan State Treasurer (and Republican gubernatorial nominee) Stacy Garrity echoed at a recent debate. Gov. Josh Shapiro urges lawmakers to adopt his own plan to legalize them while imposing a 52% tax on gross gambling revenue. State House Speaker Joanna McClinton (D-Philadelphia) also said she favors a tax, telling Spotlight PA last month that “we remain open, willing to negotiate, get the compromise done, regulate them, tax them.”
To paraphrase a famous fictional character who was also involved with gambling, here is my suggestion: nothing.
The legislature should do nothing. Let the slot machines remain illegal. The court interpreted the law correctly, and it is a good law. And the legislature has already proven time and again that lawmakers are not adept at passing laws on time — or at all. So they should play to their strengths and let the “skill games” die.
This may come as a surprise to some of our younger readers, but governments used to be against vice. Gambling was seen as a shady business, harmful to ordinary people. It was a crime. It always went on, as vices always do, but you had to seek it out. You had to make an effort to commit that crime, and the fact that it was a crime was a societal signal that it was not a good idea.
But that much money floating around attracted not only the mafia, but also the state. Ever-expanding welfare states required higher and higher taxes…unless there was another way to get people to give the state their money. And so an unsavory partnership was formed. First the state lottery, then the casinos, then the apps, and now the skill games. Gambling is everywhere, and the state wants to wet its beak.
Now that gambling is widespread, the inevitable consequences are there for all to see. Lives are ruined by gambling addiction, and even those uninvolved with the vice see its effects as sports figures manipulate plays to get a payout from gamblers. But politicians in both parties in Pennsylvania see only the money they can rake off the top.
That’s because they have an addiction, too: to government spending. Federal money flowed down from Washington like honey during Covid, and state and local governments spent all that temporary largesse on permanent expansions of the bureaucracy and the welfare state. Now, they’re rummaging through our pockets for the money to keep paying for it all.
“Sin taxes” are always a tempting target. There is a voluntary aspect to it all, at least on the surface. Unlike taxing income or property, which everyone requires to live in one way or another, taxing gambling, booze, cigarettes, and (if Shapiro gets his way) marijuana feels less like it’s depriving the people of something they need. If you can afford to spend money on these frivolities, you can afford to pay the tax, right?
But dealing with addiction is never as simple as that. These industries cater to many people, but the real payday comes from the people at the far end of the bell curve, those who use the product every day, multiple times a day, when they can’t afford it, when it’s ruining their lives. Many of the same people who will come to depend on the welfare state are put in that position by their addictions — which the government is now happy to encourage.
We should not balance Pennsylvania’s budget on the backs of addicts. We should not work with the slot machine companies to spread vice to every corner store. To the extent the government interferes in your life at all, it should be to help you make better choices — to create the conditions where virtue can thrive and people can strive to become more virtuous and more successful.
Instead, Democrats and Republicans are competing to see who can squeeze the last coins from a gambler’s pocket. Let’s take a step back and think about helping people out of a bad situation, instead of helping ourselves to their paychecks.
Kyle Sammin is the managing editor of Broad + Liberty.
