ICYMI: ‘Skill’ Game Executive Charged with Racketeering After Aiding the Onslaught of Illegal Convenience Store Slots

The former national compliance director for ‘skill’ game manufacturer, Pace-O-Matic is being prosecuted by the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office for accepting “more than $500,000 in kickbacks to quash complaints about illegal slot machines.”

Pennsylvania continues to fight the proliferation of these machines, but localities are struggling to remove them. From the Philadelphia City Council: “As we wait for relief from our partners at the state, we must address the unfavorable conditions in our communities…It is not okay to tempt our residents from low- and moderate-income neighborhoods with the opportunities to gamble away their hard-earned dollars.”

Why It Matters In Virginia: This is the same company that has made continuous attempts to line Virginia’s main streets with convenience store slot machines, targeting Virginia’s low-income and minority communities. This is also not the first time that the company’s senior executives have found themselves under serious legal scrutiny. Rather, this is just the latest of many examples of why the industry cannot be trusted to do business with the Commonwealth.

Time and time again, the so-called skill game industry has shown a disregard for the harm these machines inflict on our communities. As the General Assembly returns this week to Richmond, we hope they reject any attempt to legalize these dangerous machines. When bad actors show their true colors, we ought to believe them.

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