Owners of PA Casinos Ask Court to Tax Skill Games

The owners of 12 Pennsylvania casinos have decided to take their long-standing grievances to the law-courts, filing a lawsuit that brands the hefty state tax on slot machine revenue as unconstitutional and discriminatory. 

Skill Games and Slots Should Be Taxed the Same

The different treatment being meted out to skill games and slot machines appears to be the main argument behind the lawsuit that was filed last week in front of the state Supreme Court. 

Slot machine revenue currently attracts approximately 54% in taxes across the Keystone State. Skill games have so far managed to escape taxation, despite two different proposals made by Governor Josh Shapiro and by 16% proposal by Senator Gene Yew.

Shapiro’s 42% structure is unlikely to be included in this year’s budget, with an ongoing legal battle in front of the Commonwealth Court about whether skill games constitute gambling being to blame. Senator Yew’s considerably lower proposal of 16% remains languishing for debate in front of the House.

This seeming impasse continues to infuriate owners of land-based and online PA casinos, who have decided to take their protests a notch higher. The complainants include Caesars Entertainment Inc. and Penn Entertainment Inc.

“There is no basis for requiring licensed entities to pay about half of their slot machine revenue to the Commonwealth while allowing unlicensed entities to pay no tax on such revenue,” they argue in the lawsuit, as reported by The Independent. The lawsuit is asking for the state to apply the same tax rate to skill games, or to stop taxing slot machines.