Pottsville is planning to drastically increase the tax it imposes on Pennsylvania Skill games machines.
On Monday, City Council held a first reading of an ordinance that would raise the tax on each Skill games machine from $150 to $1,000.
There are 130 machines in Pottsville so the new tax would generate $130,000.
Last year, Pottsville doubled its decades-old tax on amusement devices from $75 to $150. It was one of the first municipalities to react to the rise in Skill games machines by raising its amusement tax but after a number of others in Schuylkill County did the same, Pottsville’s was one of the lowest.
In its ordinance, Pottsville says the tax is necessary to meet the “increased administrative oversight demands, enforcement activity, and secondary impacts upon public safety, zoning enforcement, and code compliance.”
The ordinance also states, “the tax imposed here in is not a penalty, not a prohibition, and not a regulation of gambling, but a lawful revenue-raising measure imposed upon the privilege of operating amusement devices for profit.”
City Mayor Tom Smith said the new tax, once it’s adopted, will only apply to Pennsylvania Skill machines, not other mechanical amusement devices like jukeboxes and pinball machines.
Smith also said that part of the new tax will include a uniformed officer visiting each location
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