(File Photo)

(Harrisburg) Attorney General Dave Sunday announced that a pair of western Pennsylvania-based amusement companies pleaded guilty to felony corrupt organizations regarding the widespread distribution of hundreds of illegal video gaming devices. The companies — Buffalo Skills Games, Inc. and J.J. Amusement, Inc. — agreed to dissolution and the forfeiture of $5 million in assets, as part of the plea resolution. Investigators seized nearly 400 illegal gambling devices from more than 60 locations in several western Pennsylvania counties. ”This resolution secures a multimillion-dollar forfeiture for the Commonwealth, while assuring the companies will cease to exist,” Attorney General Sunday said. “I commend our partners at the Pennsylvania State Police for helping disband a large-scale operation that involved slot machines essentially dressed up as skill games.”

The Pennsylvania State Police assisted the Office of Attorney General’s Gaming Enforcement and Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Sections in a series of 2024 seizures at bars, gas stations, and convenience stores in Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, Cambria, Crawford, Indiana, Somerset, Venango, Erie, Washington, Armstrong, and Westmoreland counties. “Illegal gambling operations are not victimless crimes,” Attorney General Sunday added. “They can fuel criminal enterprises, exploit individuals addicted to gambling, and rip off consumers with games that are not regulated, provide little or no chance of winning, and do not comply with gambling self-exclusion lists intended to protect those struggling with addiction.” 

This case was prosecuted by the Office of Attorney General’s Gaming Enforcement Section.