Businesses offering skill games in Pennsylvania secured a major win after a court decision last week. On Thursday, the Commonwealth Court in the state sided with a lower court’s decision that recognized winnings from skill games as legal, a report released by 8 WGAL reveals. Dauphin County’s court ruled 7-0 in favor of a previous ruling that acknowledged skill games are not slot machines. Moreover, the court’s decision recognized that skill games are not illegal gambling machines and cannot be seized by law enforcement, explaining that such games require hand and eye coordination rather than pure chance which is the case for slots.

The new decision represents a major win for businesses across Pennsylvania, including gas stations, bars and restaurants that currently offer skill games. Such games have proven to boost the revenues of businesses across the state while offering a new form of entertainment. Besides businesses, non-profit organizations can also continue to offer skill games, despite opposing parties claiming that such machines are similar to slots.

Mike Barley, the chief of public relations for Pace-O-Matic, a skill game manufacturer, revealed that the court’s latest decision reaffirms the legality of their product. He explained that this decision may pave the way for the taxation of such products. “We’re in a unique position where we have a legal product — the court has said so — and we’re saying, ‘Please come tax us. Please come regulate us.’ It’s not something you hear very often in Harrisburg, but we’re hoping to get some action,” he explained.

Opponents of Skill Games Disagree with the Court’s Decision

The latest court’s decision represents a signal for lawmakers to greenlight laws that regulate and tax skill gaming machines. Proposals filed in Pennsylvania called for a 16% tax on proceeds from skill gaming, a figure that is significantly lower when compared to the 54% tax casinos pay for their slots.

Despite the court’s decision, the future of skill games is not certain yet. This is because the state attorney general may consider appealing the Dauphin County court decision to the Supreme Court in Pennsylvania.

While the recent court decision brought excitement for businesses and skill games manufacturers, not everyone agreed with it. Pete Shelly, a spokesperson for a group against the expansion of skill games created by casino operators called Pennsylvanians Against Gaming Expansion, warned about the dangers of the expansion of skill games. He said that if lawmakers do not take action considering the new court’s decision, the state may be flooded with tens of thousands of skill games.

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On July 11 and 12, 2023, XLMedia posted an Instagram ad showcasing an image of Mason Mount, a professional midfielder representing Chelsea at the time, engaged in playing soccer.

The soccer player, who has since been transferred to Manchester United, was 24 years old when the respective ad was made public. 

Two complaints were issued in relation to the ad, primarily trying to establish whether it had breached Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP) Code regulations which specify that individuals who are under the age of 25 should not be featured significantly in marketing communications in relation to gambling services. 

There is an exception to this rule and it covers those cases when betting can be directly placed via transactional facilities. 

ASA’s Ruling Explained 

Since the nature of the ad was to promote engagement with gambling services and Mount’s image of playing soccer played a critical role in conveying the message, the ASA came to the conclusion that XLMedia breached the CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 1.3 (Social responsibility).

While FreeBetsDotCom is a platform that aggregates sports betting offers from different providers and facilitates gamblers’ interactions with their favorite gambling services, it does not offer gambling services on its own. 

Nonetheless, the regulator still ruled that XLMedia acted irresponsibly when it decided to feature a soccer player who is under 25 years old playing and give him an important role in the ad. 

As a consequence, the ASA decided that the perspective ad with Mount at the center should no longer be publicly displayed in its original form. 

XLMedia has also been advised to refrain from using the images of individuals who are under the age of 25 in similarly important positions within their marketing communications for services used to lead consumers to have interactions with gambling services. 

CAP’s Compliance team has also been asked to take further action.

Unreasonable Delay Rule Also Breached 

In spite of initiating an official inquiry into the potential violation of these advertising guidelines, XLMedia, which is the parent company of FreeBetsDotCom, failed to offer a response. 

This automatically prompted additional concerns regarding a breach of the ASA Code (Edition 12) rule 1.7 which speaks about Unreasonable delay. 

The UK’s regulator of advertising that applies all Ad Codes written by the CAP emphasized the necessity that companies provide timely replies while further strengthening the idea that they should closely adhere to this requirement during future interactions.

Last week, the same regulator ruled that Postcode Lottery’s ad in the Daily Mail breached advertising regulations. In August, the ASA backed William Hill in an ad ruling regarding retired professional soccer player Robbie Savage.

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