Sweepstakes Casinos in Pennsylvania: Three Elements of Gambling, and a Supreme Court That Just Applied Them
Pennsylvania licenses real-money online casinos and has no statute that names sweepstakes casinos. What it has is older and, since June 2026, harder to argue around: a crimes-code section built on three elements — consideration, chance and reward — and a Supreme Court decision that reversed the lower court on “skill games” and treated them as slot machines under the Gaming Act’s 2017 definitions, without weighing skill against chance. A game with no consideration and no reward is outside all of it on the text.
| Statute in force | 18 Pa.C.S. § 5513 — gambling devices, gambling, etc. |
|---|---|
| General offence | § 5513(a) — making, setting up, maintaining or offering any slot machine or “any device to be used for gambling purposes” |
| Sweepstakes-café clause | § 5513(a.1) — an electronic video monitor offering a simulated gambling program for direct or indirect consideration AND eligibility for a cash or cash-equivalent prize |
| Where (a.1) applies | A “simulated gambling program” is defined as one used on a monitor “in a business establishment” |
| The three elements | Consideration, a result determined by chance rather than skill, and a reward (the Supreme Court’s test since 1983) |
| Supreme Court, 15 June 2026 | In re Three Pa. Skill Amusement Devices / POM of Pa. v. Dep’t of Revenue: Commonwealth Court reversed in both |
| Regulator action | Gaming Control Board: 18 cease-and-desist letters, disclosed April 2025 (secondary reports only) |
| Pending bills found | SB 756 (skill-game tax and regulation, in committee since 13 May 2025); House memo 46324 on sweepstakes loopholes (never introduced) |
| Status | enforcement |
| What defines it | 18 Board cease-and-desist letters Apr 2025; no ban bill introduced |
| Watch | Memo 46324 filed as a bill |
| Last verified | 2026-09-24 |
The two clauses, and the phrase that limits the second
Section 5513(a) makes it a first-degree misdemeanour to make, set up, maintain or offer “any punch board, drawing card, slot machine or any device to be used for gambling purposes”, and to run premises for unlawful gambling. Section 5513(a.1), added for sweepstakes cafés, reaches whoever owns or operates an electronic video monitor “(1) which is offered or made available to persons to play or participate in a simulated gambling program for direct or indirect consideration, including consideration associated with a related product, service or activity; and (2) for which the person playing … may become eligible for a cash or cash-equivalent prize”.
The two limbs are joined by “and”: both must hold. The definitions in § 5513(f) then fix the setting. Consideration associated with a related product includes money paid for computer time, internet time, calling cards and a sweepstakes entry. And a “simulated gambling program” is a method used by a person interacting with an electronic video monitor “in a business establishment”. On its words, (a.1) is a café statute.
This is a reading of statutory text, not a legal conclusion.
June 2026: the Supreme Court and the “skill game”
On 15 June 2026 the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania decided two appeals together, In re Three Pennsylvania Skill Amusement Devices and POM of Pennsylvania v. Department of Revenue, about the unlicensed “skill games” found in shops and bars across the state. The Commonwealth Court had held the devices outside § 5513 in one case and outside the Gaming Act in the other. The Supreme Court reversed in both cases. It pointed to the legislature’s 2017 addition of “skill slot machine” and “hybrid slot machine” to the Gaming Act’s definition of a slot machine, which in the lead opinion’s view (three justices, on the POM appeal) makes the skill element legally insignificant for those devices. It reversed, remanded both cases, and stayed its order for 120 days, with a safe harbour from enforcement during the stay.
The decision restates the test that decides whether a machine is a gambling device: “the three elements necessary to gambling: consideration, a result determined by chance rather than skill, and a reward.” If a machine displays all three it is a gambling device per se. The skill-game litigation was fought entirely over the middle element. The other two were conceded for the purposes of the POM petition, because those machines take money and pay money.
Sweepstakes casinos: the regulator moved, the legislature has not
No Pennsylvania statute names online sweepstakes casinos. Reports from April 2025 describe the Gaming Control Board sending 18 cease-and-desist letters to sweepstakes operators serving Pennsylvania players, disclosed at an April 2025 House committee hearing, and all 18 recipients reportedly complying; we have not read the letters or the testimony. A House co-sponsorship memo of 7 April 2025 by Representative Joe McAndrew, “Ending Sweepstakes Loopholes for Unregulated Online Social Casinos and Gaming Providers”, announced a bill aimed at operators who sell virtual currency convertible into cash prizes; the legislature’s own site records that it has not been introduced. SB 756, which would tax and regulate skill-gaming machines, was referred to committee on 13 May 2025 and we found no later action; a second skill-game bill, SB 1079, followed in October 2025. Neither is a sweepstakes-casino ban.
So the position we can source is this: the licensed online casino market is regulated under the Gaming Act; the crimes code reaches any device used for gambling, measured by consideration, chance and reward; and the dedicated sweepstakes clause is written for business premises. Whether a sweepstakes casino that sells coins redeemable for cash is a device “used for gambling purposes” under § 5513(a) is not a question any Pennsylvania court has answered in a decision we found.
Can you still play a sweepstakes casino in Pennsylvania?
Pennsylvania licenses real-money online casinos, and its gambling regulator has told sweepstakes-casino operators to stop serving the state; all 18 that received letters in April 2025 reportedly complied. No statute names sweepstakes casinos yet, and the one bill memo aimed at them was never introduced. But Pennsylvania’s test for gambling is old and simple — consideration, chance and a reward — and in June 2026 its Supreme Court classed the state’s “skill games” as slot machines rather than accept their design argument.
A site being reachable from Pennsylvania is not evidence that it is lawful there.
Sources
- Verified Pennsylvania General Assembly, 18 Pa.C.S. § 5513 — read in full 5 September 2026 from the legislature’s classic static path and saved in the repository (handoffs/source-pa-18-5513-2026-09-05.html). Subsections (a), (a.1) and (f), including “in a business establishment”, are quoted from that text.
- Verified Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, In re Three Pennsylvania Skill Amusement Devices; POM of Pennsylvania, LLC v. Department of Revenue, No. 50 MAP 2024 and No. 2 EAP 2024, decided 15 June 2026 (lead opinion by Justice Wecht; on POM 4–2, Justices Mundy and Brobson dissenting) — read in full 24 September 2026 in the Free Law Project’s copy. The reversal of the Commonwealth Court in both cases, the reliance on Act 42 of 2017, and the three-element quotation are taken from it. Not yet read on the Unified Judicial System’s own site.
- Verified Pennsylvania General Assembly, SB 756 (2025–2026), referred to Community, Economic and Recreational Development on 13 May 2025; and House co-sponsorship memo 46324 (McAndrew, 7 April 2025), marked as not yet submitted for introduction — both read 23 September 2026.
- Probable The Gaming Control Board’s April 2025 cease-and-desist letters to sweepstakes operators and the operators’ withdrawal — trade reporting only; the Board’s own release was not read. Likewise the statement that Pennsylvania licenses real-money online casinos (Act 42 of 2017) is taken from general knowledge and the opinion’s references to the Gaming Act, not from a statute read for this page.
- Unverified Any Pennsylvania decision applying § 5513(a) or (a.1) to an online sweepstakes casino, and any 2025–2026 bill beyond the two above. The bill search was not exhaustive.
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