From GGB News Apr 2020 Skill Games Still Active
Wed, Apr 1, 2020 — In several states, unregulated “skill games” are still up and running, despite the nationwide coronavirus shutdown.
On Monday, March 16, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board ordered all casinos in the state to shut down, part of the larger nationwide effort to slow the spread of the deadly coronavirus. The following day, gaming boards in Missouri and Kansas followed suit, and eventually, the entire legal gaming industry was at a standstill.
Many in the industry initially thought social distancing—shutting down two or three slot machines between each active game—would allow casinos to remain open. Then the Centers for Disease Control revealed that the Covid-19 virus can survive up to two or three days on stainless steel, plastic and other nonporous surfaces—like gaming machines. An industry shutdown was unavoidable.
But as recently as last weekend, convenience stores, pizza parlors, gas stations and other retail locations in Pennsylvania, Missouri and elsewhere still had live gaming machines operating. These are the so-called “skill games” that had been cropping up in several states prior to the crisis, the subject of an effort launched in February to battle them by the Association of Gaming Equipment Manufacturers (AGEM) and the American Gaming Association (AGA).
Read full article — From GGB News Apr 2020 Skill Games Still Active