Pennsylvania lawmakers inked a budget deal and left Harrisburg last month without reaching an agreement on how to preserve skill games, the slot-machine-like betting terminals that are scheduled to abruptly become illegal in October.
That’s the deadline set in a state Supreme Court decision that may doom a 12-year-long experiment in Pennsylvania that tested what was, in effect, an unregulated gaming expansion.
Local clubs will likely shutter, tens of thousands of video terminals will head for the scrapyard, and many social services workers will breathe a sigh of relief that an addictive pastime has gone away.
