Dear Editor,
So-called “skill games” can be found in corner stores, gas stations, laundromats, and scores of other small businesses across Pennsylvania. For years, they’ve operated in a legal gray area—they look and feel like slot machines, but till now, they’ve been unregulated.
A recent ruling by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court changes all that, and it could have a profound impact on older Pennsylvanians and the services they receive.
What’s about to follow could create some big winners … and big losers.
A Landmark Ruling and a Critical Opportunity
On June 15, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that skill games are slot machines operating outside the law, giving the General Assembly 120 days to figure out how to regulate them. The commonwealth could be looking at more than $1 billion annually in new revenue. Where that money flows is up to the Legislature to decide, and that is exactly where older adults must make their voices heard.
For Pennsylvania’s 52 Area Agencies on Aging, what happens next will have real consequences for older adults across all 67 counties.
Why the Lottery Fund Matters
The unregulated spread of skill games has quietly eroded the State Lottery Fund for years. For older adults, the Lottery Fund is the financial backbone of the services that make independent living possible. It funds the meals delivered to a homebound neighbor, the ride to a chemotherapy appointment, the caregivers that support both individuals and families, and the senior centers where friendships form and isolation fades.
When skill game machines draw players away from the Lottery without contributing a cent back to the fund, those services’ recipients suffer. AAAs across the state have spent years managing the shortfall, and budgets are getting further squeezed.
Mature Resources Area Agency on Aging is one of the many area agencies on aging and its friends, urging the General Assembly to direct $170 million in skill game tax revenue—just a fraction of the state’s expected windfall—to the Lottery Fund. Pennsylvania has done this before: Casino tax revenue funds the Property Tax and Rent Relief Program, freeing Lottery dollars for other services. The same approach can work here, and the court’s ruling has created the clearest opportunity in years.
The Stakes Are Real
By 2030, one in three Pennsylvanians will be older than 60. Yet funding for aging services has severely lagged for two decades. Pennsylvania is already feeling the strain. Last year, 13 senior centers closed. Nearly two dozen more are at risk. Twenty AAAs anticipate cutting programs; 22 expect to expand waitlists.
Behind each of those numbers is a person who may lose a meal, a ride, or the one weekly check-in that keeps them safe at home. A cutback in services ripples outward, putting pressure on family caregivers, driving up the frequency of emergency room visits, and pushing older adults toward institutional care that costs far more, for families and for the state.
The court has acted. Now it is up to the Legislature, and up to all of us, to make sure this moment leads somewhere meaningful for older Pennsylvanians.
Take Action Today
Contact your legislators today and urge them to direct skill game revenue to the Lottery Fund. Tell them that older Pennsylvanians cannot be left behind.
Contact: Dennis Biancuzzo, Mature Resources Area Agency on Aging
116 South Second Street
Clearfield, PA 16830
Phone: (814) 765-2696
