Well, we’re finally here. Games of skill now, thanks to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, are slot machines (we all knew that). Casinos hate them because they are “losing money.” Politicians hate them for the same reason: “People are spending money and we aren’t receiving our cut, and trust us, we will put our cut to good use!”

Pretty much everyone else either loves them or ignores them. They provide fun and the possibility for “winning” money.

If the government gets their way (which they ALWAYS do) in getting 52% of the money going into the machines, the money coming back out into the “players’s” pockets will be cut to the point that it won’t be worth playing. And that is exactly what the casinos have wanted all along.

So, the casinos and the politicians win and the people lose — literally.

Gary Schmiedecke,

Butler Township