Daily Gaming Market Brief — September 23, 2026
Top story: Pennsylvania, 20 days out — still three bills, still no floor movement, and the "no plan in the budget" problem is now three months old
Yesterday's brief tallied three live skill-games proposals in some form. Today's scan confirms nothing has moved: Rep. Russ Diamond's package still has no bill number — 14 days past his own September 9 "within the next week" promise, and a Pennsylvania bill-tracking check today again turns up nothing filed matching his 20%-tax, five-machine-cap plan. Rep. Benjamin Waxman's HB 2557 remains parked in the House Gaming Oversight Committee with no action since its June 1 referral. Sens. Yaw and Williams' SB 1079 is still short the House Democratic votes it needs, ten months after introduction.
Useful context for clients this week: this isn't a new problem, it's an old one the legislature has now failed to solve twice. Pennsylvania's $50.8 billion 2026-27 budget — signed by Governor Shapiro back in July, itself the state's fifth consecutive late budget — contained no skill-games framework at all, despite the Supreme Court's October 13 deadline already being on the calendar when it passed. The budget process was the legislature's first real chance to resolve this, and it walked past it. The proposed tax rates alone show how far apart the sides still are: Shapiro's own budget proposal sought 52% on skill games, Yaw's SB 1079 approach works out closer to 16%, and Diamond's still-unfiled plan proposes 20%. A three-bill scramble with 20 days on the clock is what a missed budget cycle looks like in practice.
The read for clients: nothing this week changes the plan-for-October-13-as-written posture. If anything, the budget detail is worth using with clients directly — it's concrete evidence that "the legislature will find a way" has already been tested once this year and didn't happen. (Gambling Insider (https://www.gamblinginsider.com/news/194717/pennsylvania-skill-game-bill-october-13-deadline), LegiScan HB2557 (https://legiscan.com/PA/bill/HB2557/2025), NewsNet5 — PA budget omission (https://www.newsnet5.com/news/pennsylvania-2026-27-budget-skill-games-omission/))
Illinois/Chicago: still zero machines live, and today's scan surfaced the budget number behind the stall
No change on licensing — still 42 state licenses issued against 311 applications, and still zero machines operating legally, eight months after legalization, because Mayor Brandon Johnson's office has not sent the activation notice to the Illinois Gaming Board. New detail worth flagging to Chicago-area clients: the city's own 2026 budget assumed $6.8 million in VGT licensing revenue that will not materialize at this rate, and the Civic Federation has warned the unresolved rollout could carry into pressure on the 2027 budget cycle. Separately, roughly 7,000 unlicensed sweepstakes machines continue operating untaxed across the city — the City Council voted 33-15 in June to reject a ban on them, so the competitive distortion against licensed VGT operators persists by design, not oversight. (Gambling.com (http://Gambling.com) — Chicago VGT stuck at zero (https://www.gambling.com/news/chicago-vgt-rollout-stuck-at-zero-machines-after-8-months))
Missouri, Georgia, Texas: steady — no new filings, notices, or hearing dates
• Missouri: No new reporting confirms whether the Missouri Licensing Advocacy Group has refiled its suit against Attorney General Hanaway's enforcement crackdown with named plaintiffs since its August dismissal. The broader wave of business lawsuits against the AG's crackdown (St. Charles, Tuners Bar and Grill, and others) remains in the same posture as prior briefs — filed, unresolved, no new rulings today.
• Georgia: No new state or local ordinance activity. HB 353's cash-payout ban and the Rome/South Fulton/Floyd County local-ordinance layer remain the operative picture, with COAM license-renewal season still an ongoing seasonal compliance item for Georgia clients.
• Texas: San Antonio's Governance Committee still has no scheduled hearing date for Councilwoman Teri Castillo's eight-liner ban, filed September 9 — confirmed again today, two weeks in.
Nevada, West Virginia, Montana, Oregon, Nebraska: quiet
No new developments identified in any of the five today. Montana's SB 153 video-poker bet/payout cap increase remains pending with the industry split; the other four states show no change from their existing regulatory frameworks.
Nationwide: no new bill activity confirmed today
Indiana and Mississippi remain the two states most likely to see a distributed-gaming bill reach a governor's desk this cycle; neither had confirmed new movement today. Virginia continues to be the cautionary reference point for clients asking "what happens after a bill passes" — a bill that cleared the legislature but still stalled on a structural precondition (an independent gaming commission) that itself won't move until 2027.
