Compliance Updates

Judge Rules that Pennsylvania Skill Games are ‘Devices of Skill’

Published

1 year ago

June 7, 2023

A Monroe County judge has ruled that Pennsylvania Skill games are legal. Click here to read the order from Monroe County Court of Common Pleas Judge Jonathan Mark.

Games were seized in 2022 from a small business during a seizure carried out by the Monroe County District Attorney’s office in coordination with the Pennsylvania Bureau of Liquor Control and Enforcement (BLCE) even though skill games have been deemed legal by courts of law.

In his ruling, Judge Mark said Pennsylvania Skill ‘devices are games of skill and not games of chance’.

In a Monroe County ruling earlier this year on the seized skill games, a judge reprimanded county prosecutors alleging misconduct in the investigation and their prosecution of legal skill games. Click here to read the Monroe County order.

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“The court finds that the Commonwealth improperly withheld and misrepresented material evidence relative to the issuance of the search warrant in this matter and that such conduct warrants the suppression of the seized property,” Monroe County Common Pleas Judge Jennifer Harlacher Sibum wrote.

Pennsylvania Skill games also have been deemed legal skill games by other courts this year. Pace-O-Matic won a return of property motion in York County. This property – gaming machines, related equipment and cash – was wrongfully seized by BLCE. Click here to read the York County order.

In addition, a Dauphin County judge ruled in favor of the games and against county prosecutors this year. Click here to read the Dauphin County ruling.

“Initially, it is this Court’s belief that the Commonwealth’s investigation shows case bias,” Dauphin County Common Pleas Judge Andrew H Dowling wrote. “The Commonwealth is seeking to make all machines like the POM Machines into illegal gambling devices and their whole approach and intent is to shut down games regardless of the actual gameplay. Thus, the Commonwealth as a whole is biased against the games and their approach lacks case credibility.”

“Pace-O-Matic’s Pennsylvania Skill games are legal,” the counsel for Pace-O-Matic, Matthew Haverstick of Kleinbard LLC, said. “The Commonwealth has wrongfully seized its equipment for years with no credible evidence that the games are illegal. Judges are now carefully looking at the evidence and ruling in our favor.”

“Again, another Pennsylvania court has found that Pennsylvania Skill games, powered by Pace-O-Matic, are legal games of predominant skill,” the Chief Public Affairs Officer for Pace-O-Matic, Mike Barley, said. “With the legality of our games upheld repeatedly, we are eager to work with the legislature to pass legislation that will fairly regulate and tax the skill game industry. In fact, Pace-O-Matic stands out among our competitors as the active driving force seeking additional regulation and taxation.”

Legislation introduced by Pennsylvania Senator Gene Yaw will regulate skill games and tax them at a rate that would generate $300 million a year for the Commonwealth.

Pennsylvania Skill games have been ruled games of predominant skill by courts in Beaver, Dauphin, Monroe and York counties. Additionally, after a review of the law and court decisions, skill games also have been returned in both Clearfield and Delaware counties.

Pennsylvania Skill has pumped new life into the Commonwealth’s small businesses, fraternal and social clubs, volunteer fire companies and veterans’ organizations by providing an entertainment product that the public enjoys. Meanwhile, research data proves skill games do not impact the revenue of casinos and the lottery, both achieving record profits yearly.

Pennsylvania Skill games are manufactured in the Commonwealth and over 90% of the profits stay inside the state. That is unheard of in gaming and many other industries. Pace-O-Matic is proud of its record and looks forward to continuing to benefit Pennsylvania businesses, clubs and taxpayers now and in the future.

As part of ongoing efforts to ensure compliance, Pace-O-Matic employs a team of former state police officers to enforce all terms of contracts and codes of conduct. These contracted terms limit the number of machines, where they are placed in a location and have protections in place to prevent anyone underage from playing the devices.

In 2014, the Beaver County Court of Common Pleas ruled that Pace-O-Matic’s Pennsylvania Skill games are legal as games of predominant skill. Click here to read that court decision.

In addition, last year, the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General and the Clearfield County District Attorney’s office negotiated a settlement to return wrongfully seized Pennsylvania Skill games, related equipment and cash. Click here to read that order.

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GLI Becomes First Laboratory to be Accredited in Maranhão, Brazil

Published

2 days ago

November 20, 2024

Niji Narayan

Gaming Laboratories International (GLI) has become the first laboratory to achieve accreditation in Maranhão, Brazil. The accreditation allows GLI to perform tests and certification for the gambling and lottery industry interested in working with lottery and fixed-odds betting operators in the state of Maranhão.

The milestone is the latest in a series of regulatory achievements for GLI in Brazil. Lottery of the State of Maranhão is the third jurisdiction in Brazil to accredit laboratories, and GLI is accredited in all and the first to be authorized in all.

Cassiano Pereira Junior, president of Maranhão Parcerias (Mapa), highlighted the importance of the partnership between the Maranhão State Lottery (Lotema) and GLI. “Every day we strive to make Lotema even better, providing greater security for its users. The partnership with GLI is a concrete way of achieving this goal, as its certification laboratories play an important role for the gaming and lottery industry, guaranteeing the conformity, security, and integrity of the products and systems used by Lotema,” Cassiano explained.

“We are grateful to the Lottery of the State of Maranhão for granting GLI the laboratory accreditation, becoming the first to be authorized in Maranhão. It is extremely gratifying to see how Lotema empower themselves by trusting the technical compliance process to provide transparency, integrity, and accountability to all the industry stakeholders through the certification process. The laboratory accreditation is the first step for a successful implementation of the certification based on jurisdictional standards, and the reason why we at GLI take this step very seriously and with great priority every time a new jurisdiction opens. We feel responsible for being part of the solution towards a fast and efficient implementation of regulations, thus supporting further local industry development and sustainable growth. We are grateful to Lotema and excited to be part of its thriving industry,” said Karen Sierra-Hughes, Vice President of Latin America, Caribbean, and Spain.

GLI has been working with regulators, lotteries, and industry stakeholders across the Latin American and Caribbean region for more than 26 years in their efforts toward regulation, sustainable growth, and eradicating illegal gaming. In Brazil, GLI has been side by side with government entities and all industry stakeholders for nearly 20 years, participating in public hearings in the Senate, Chamber of Deputies, and State government level, and in recent years, adding strategic local representation to strengthen their local support.

Compliance Updates

Betano Receives Licence to Operate in Colombia

Published

2 days ago

November 20, 2024

Niji Narayan

Kaizen Gaming Colombia, owner of the Betano.co brand, was authorized by Coljuegos to operate online betting in the country. With this new operator, there are now 16 web platforms that have the approval of the entity to market games of chance online.

“We continue to strengthen the online gaming industry. We hope that, with the entry of this new operator, we can continue to increase transfers for the health of Colombians. At this time, the platform is already operating for the betting public,” said Marco Emilio Hincapié, president of Coljuegos.

The entity is also in the process of authorizing an additional operator called Bingo Casino, which is expected to begin offering bets in the coming weeks.

It is worth mentioning that, by 2024, it is estimated that online betting portals will pay around $419,527 million to Coljuegos for exploitation rights, which represents an increase of 31% compared to the same period in 2023. All of these resources are transferred to the health system.

“We are seeing that online betting is a sector of the economy that has driven the growth of the country’s Gross Domestic Product. That is why we are working to make the market even more attractive and to provide more options to bettors,” said the president.

According to financial projections, this new operator is expected to pay Coljuegos around $21.513 billion over the next five years for operating rights and administration costs, resources that can be transferred to subsidize health and scientific research.

Compliance Updates

Chris Christie bets on Texas to approve OSB in 2025

Published

4 days ago

November 18, 2024

Adrienn Sarkany

Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has backed Texas to legalise online sports betting in the state’s next legislative session.

Christie helped pave the way for sports betting liberalisation across the US by bringing the Supreme Court case that led to the repeal of PASPA.

The case was fought and won by prominent conservative lawyer Ted Olson, who Christie hired to argue the case for states to make their own decisions on sports betting. Olson died last week at the age of 84.

After Missouri became the 39th US state to legalise sports betting in some capacity, attention has quickly turned again to the big three states of Texas, California, and Florida.

“I think it’ll happen in Texas in the next legislative session,” said Christie, speaking to Covers.com. The next session is due to commence in Texas on January 14, 2025.

Christie is less confident about California, however, where competing sports betting ballots failed in 2022 amid a bitter dispute and lobbying war between online operators and local tribes.

California is seen as essential to the future prospects of US sports betting operators, given its size and wealth and dramatic impact on the country’s total addressable market (TAM).

“I don’t know about California,” said Christie. “This really takes gubernatorial leadership, and Gavin Newsom has got to decide if this is one of the issues he wants to lead on.

“Without gubernatorial leadership, the legislature won’t do it because they’re pulled like taffy in too many directions by too many different interests. Without the governor pushing for it, I just don’t think it’ll happen.”

Despite another potential setback in California, Christie has backed sports betting to penetrate pretty much every state eventually.

“I really believe sports betting is inevitable to go just about nationwide, because people in America love their sports, they just do,” he said. “I think it is in the leagues’ best interests to grow their audience. The government gets some piece of the pie out of that which they enjoy, and the public seems to be pretty happy for the most part.”

Depending on expansion, US sports betting could, in theory, reach every state. It would then become a national issue, but Christie has warned the federal government not to interfere.

“Let the states handle it,” he said. “The states are doing fine. You haven’t heard of anything awful or irreversible happening since each state has been involved and they should have the ability to decide whether they want gambling or not.

“I don’t think the federal government should have anything to do with it and I don’t think they ever should have. I don’t think they have to be babysitters for the governors of the country.”