Three Pennsylvania Skill-Games Bills Exist Right Now. None of Them Is Actually Moving.
United Gaming Advisors / Monte Cristo Gaming — September 22, 2026
Key Takeaways for Gaming Operators and Advisors
• Rep. Russ Diamond's skill-games package still has no bill number, 13 days after he told reporters it would be introduced "within the next week." It remains a co-sponsorship memo with 21 days left before the October 13 deadline.
• A different bill shows what "actually introduced" looks like — and that it isn't enough on its own. Rep. Benjamin Waxman's HB 2557, with 18 Democratic co-sponsors, has been sitting in the House Gaming Oversight Committee since June 1 with no further action. A real bill number bought it nothing.
• Three bills now exist in some form — Diamond's un-introduced memo, Waxman's stalled HB 2557, and Sens. Yaw and Williams' vote-short SB 1079 — and none of them is closer to the Governor's desk than a week ago.
• Missouri, Illinois, Georgia, and Texas were all quiet again — no new court filings, no activation notice from Chicago, no ordinance movement, no San Antonio hearing date.
• Nevada, West Virginia, Montana, Oregon, and Nebraska showed no new developments. Indiana and Mississippi remain the two states most likely to produce the next new distributed-gaming bill nationally.
We've been tracking whether Pennsylvania's skill-games fight would produce a bill in time for the October 13 deadline. It's worth pausing to notice that it's actually produced three — and that having three live bills in some form of existence is doing almost nothing to move the outcome.
Start with the one that isn't a bill yet. Rep. Russ Diamond told reporters on September 9 that his two-bill package — a 20% tax on skill games, a five-machine cap per venue, reduced casino slot-machine taxes — would be formally introduced "within the next week." A check of Pennsylvania's legislative record today shows nothing matching that description has been introduced. It's still a co-sponsorship memo seeking support, 13 days past Diamond's own stated timeline, with 21 days now left before the deadline.
Now look at a bill that did clear that bar, and what happened next. House Bill 2557, sponsored by Rep. Benjamin Waxman with 18 Democratic co-sponsors, was formally introduced on June 1 — a real bill number, an actual text, real amendments to the Gaming Control Board's regulatory authority over skill games. It was referred to the House Gaming Oversight Committee that same day. There has been no further recorded action on it since. More than three months in committee, with the deadline that supposedly makes this urgent now three weeks away. If you're advising a client who's relieved to hear "a bill has been introduced," HB 2557 is the reason that relief needs a caveat: introduction is a necessary step toward a law, not a sufficient one, and a bill can sit in committee indefinitely regardless of how much external pressure exists.
The third bill in this picture is the one with the most legislative pedigree and still the least momentum. Sens. Gene Yaw and Anthony Williams' bipartisan SB 1079 — a $500-per-machine monthly fee, a 50,000-terminal statewide cap, roughly $300 million in projected annual revenue — was introduced back in November 2025. It has real bipartisan Senate support. It has never had the votes it needs in the Democrat-controlled House, and nothing this month has changed that math. Meanwhile, Rep. Brad Roae's and Rep. Jim Rigby's six-month extension request — which would push the deadline itself rather than resolve the underlying question — remains unscheduled, and Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman's objection that October 13 flows from the state Supreme Court's ruling, not from the legislature, and therefore may not be the legislature's to simply move, is still sitting there unanswered.
Local advocacy keeps making the same case, to diminishing legislative effect. A press conference at Dupont VFW Post 4909 last month brought out the same voices now echoing statewide — veterans' organizations and small-business owners describing real financial exposure if the machines disappear. "Without those machines, I don't know where I'd be," said Kurt Masser, a former state representative who now owns the Wayside Inn. That kind of testimony generates local coverage every time it happens. None of it has yet generated a floor vote.
Elsewhere, today was quiet again — which is becoming its own pattern worth naming. Missouri: no confirmed update on whether the Missouri Licensing Advocacy Group has refiled its suit against Attorney General Hanaway's enforcement crackdown with named plaintiffs. Illinois: Chicago's VGT rollout remains stuck at 42 licenses against 311 applications, waiting on the mayor's office to send the state activation notice. Georgia: HB 353's cash-payout ban and the local-ordinance layer are unchanged, though COAM license-renewal season is an ongoing seasonal item worth a standing reminder to Georgia clients regardless of legislative news. Texas: San Antonio's Governance Committee still hasn't scheduled a hearing on the eight-liner ban filed September 9. Nevada, West Virginia, Montana, Oregon, and Nebraska showed no new developments.
Reach out if you want a live read on where your operation stands today — Pennsylvania, Missouri, Illinois, or any of the other markets we track daily.
