Jan. 6—Frequent Pittsburgh Mills walker Paul Tyree recently noticed a new form of entertainment during his fitness jaunts around the inside of the Frazer shopping mall.

A four-game skills gambling kiosk, each with large, colorful digital displays and an accompanying chair occupy the middle of a corridor that’s visible from Macy’s, Panera Bread and other vacant storefronts.

In Pennsylvania, skill games have popped up in grocery stores, small businesses, bars, restaurants, gas stations — and malls.

“I see people playing the games while here walking, like if they were in a casino,” said Tyree, 75, of Harmar. “If they’re legal, I have no problem with them. And if that would bring business into the mall, I would be in favor of it.”

The machines resemble digital slot machines but differ in how they’re played.

Whether the machines will remain legal is another question.

Numerous casinos, including Rivers in Pittsburgh and Live Casino Pittsburgh in Hempfield, along with the state Attorney General’s Office, filed an appeal to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court after the state’s Commonwealth Court ruled the games as legal in November.

Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board spokesperson Richard McGarvey declined to comment on the appeal Friday, citing ongoing litigation between the PGCB and Pace-O-Matic, a leading manufacturer of skill gaming machines. It is the Pace-O-Matic case from Dauphin County that is being appealed.

Should the Supreme Court side with the casinos and rule the games as gambling machines, state law would relegate them largely to only licensed casinos in the state, removing them from hundreds of gas stations, grocery stores and malls, where they have become popular with shoppers.

In Pennsylvania, there is no legal age requirement to play such “skill” games. At the Mills, the machines are not monitored and are available to anyone.

According to data compiled in November 2022 by the American Gaming Association, 64% of people surveyed agreed that skill games are too easily accessible to minors, and 56% said skill games increase the risk of crime and endanger employees and customers where skill games are located.

A representative of Namdar Pittsburgh Mills, the Mills mall owner, declined to comment, and Buffalo Skill Games did not return requests for comment.

“I’m not opposed to these, but I don’t want the Mills to become a casino,” Tyree said. “You can go to a drugstore nowadays and see these skill games.”

While slot machines and other forms of gambling rely on random chance, so-called skill games allow players to benefit from “skill” — often an ability to recognize patterns — to improve their chances of winning.

Players are required to pay a certain amount for each round of a game they play. If they win, the machine prints out a receipt, which can be converted into cash at the nearby ticket redemption machine.

Debra Spak of Leechburg sat relaxed Friday in front of a skill game inside Sprankle’s Neighborhood Market in downtown Leechburg.

“It’s something to do. I shop and play a bit,” Spak said.

Spak said she enjoys playing, and sometimes winning, on skill games.

She plays at Rivers Casino and a local American Legion, once winning more than $1,000.

On Friday, three gamblers tested their skills on machines at Sprankle’s, where six skill games occupy the Kiski Cafe, a beverage cafe near the checkout section of the store.

Typically, the games have players trading in currency for credits that range from 8 cents to $4.

Payouts can range up to $1,000.

Co-owner Doug Sprankle, chairman of the Pennsylvania Taverns and Players Association, a nonprofit advocating for the regulation of skill games, said he’s in favor of the state regulating the games.

All three Sprankle’s locations, Kittanning, Leechburg and Saxonburg, installed six skill machines for their customers since 2019.

Sprankle’s has set a minimum age of 18, following Pennsylvania’s state lottery minimum age requirements, even though the skill games are not regulated.

The profit received from the games is under 30%, Sprankle said.

“We used those monies to pay, help offset, our employee health care insurance,” Sprankle said.

Additionally, the skill games helped to raise more than $25,000 for the annual Sprankle’s Camp Out for Community Fundraiser.

Sprankle said the machines are popular with customers, and store managers are observant of who is playing the games, noting they don’t have issues with minors attempting to play.

“It’s entertainment for our customers,” Sprankle said.

Frazer Supervisor and Treasurer/Secretary Lori Ziencik confirmed Thursday the skill games at the Mills require an annual $100 tax per machine and $300 license fee, payable to the township.

“The township has requested the occupancy permit, and we’re still waiting for payment on that,” Ziencik said. “We will be invoicing them for amusement taxes in January.”

The machines are owned by Buffalo Skill Games, a company that distributes gaming units to businesses looking to generate additional revenue.

Additional Buffalo Skill Games are located in the Uniontown and Monroeville malls.

If the games are regulated in the future, Sprankle said, having state oversight will help deter what he called “illegal casinos” that proliferate strip malls and other businesses.

“If they’re regulated by the state, it will get rid of the bad actors. Some of these bad actors will have 20 to 30 machines and, because they’re not regulated, these places can turn into dens with other illegal activities, like drugs,” Sprankle said. “With regulation, it would create more taxes, take the bad actors out of the game and allow for entertainment within a small communities.”

Sprankle compared the skill level needed to play the machines as similar to playing tic-tac-toe.

“Things come up and, if you choose wrong, you lose,” Sprankle said.

Joyce Hanz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Joyce by email at jhanz@triblive.com or via Twitter .