Skill games removal will cost bars, clubs and small towns

The soon-to-be-illegal games have become a way of life and a source of reliable revenue in places like Ambridge By Sean D. HamillNewsWorks Lab contributor   As a vendor handed Darla Talerico a 4-inch wad of $1 and $5 bills from the till box in a crane machine game at her namesake restaurant in Ambridge on Tuesday, …

Pa. lawmakers debate opening skill games to former criminals

Proposed skill games laws could bar people convicted of running illegal video gambling machines By Sean D. HamillNewsWorks Lab contributor John “Duffy” Conley was just 22 in 1985 and not yet known as the kingpin of video gambling in western Pennsylvania with over 4,000 illegal video poker machines.  Over the next 40 years his rap …

70,000 Pa. skill games trace roots to this one ‘controlled buy’

State Police will offer path for removing machines if October deadline passes By Sean D. Hamill NewsWorks Lab contributor   The skill games that have spread to taverns, social clubs and corner stores all over Pennsylvania in recent years started with one arranged seizure in a small Beaver County social club.   On Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2013, Pennsylvania State Police troopers entered Aliquippa’s American …