One day last October, an undercover officer for the Hanover County Sheriff’s Office walked into the Breez-In convenience store in Mechanicsville (the home of “Virginia’s Finest” chicken) in pursuit of what authorities assumed was an illegal “gambling device” under state law.
Deputy Josiah Robertson saw a row of electronic games. However, the games were not set up to receive money, so there was no way for him to turn them on. Instead, the deputy went to the cashier, handed over a $20 bill and the cashier pushed a button behind the counter to turn on machine No. 1, a Queen of Virginia Skill 2 game.
For making such a gaming machine available to the public, the owner of the Breez-In was charged with a misdemeanor under Virginia’s gambling laws. For the difference between the player putting a coin into the machine and the cashier pushing a button from behind the counter, a judge this week found the owner not guilty — and reopened a debate over whether these so-called “skill” games should be legal or illegal.
Virginia legislators thought they had banned such games, yet here’s a case where that ban didn’t work — and the store owner’s attorney says prosecutors in other localities are now negotiating the details of how to drop their prosecutions.
At issue is the most technical of technicalities: the difference between a machine that the player can start and one that only the store clerk can start.
Or perhaps it involves much grander philosophical questions: Are these games harmless diversions or magnets for crime and other bad behavior? Are these essentially “neighborhood slot machines” that challenge the monopolies held by casinos? Should the state legalize these games and regulate them, tax them, or should it continue to crack down on these machines, even though this particular enforcement attempt ran afoul of a skeptical judge?
And, perhaps biggest of all: Is this ruling a “fatal blow” against the state’s ban on skill games, as one of the attorneys said, or is it simply a sneaky attempt by high-powered lawyers to find a loophole that will ultimately backfire, as an anti-skill games group intimates?
You won’t be surprised to learn the names of the lawyers at the heart of this ruling: Bill Stanley of Franklin County, better known as state Sen. Bill Stanley, R-Franklin County. In his role as a private attorney, Stanley has been championing these games for years. The Pace-O-Matic skill games company is also one of the sponsors of the auto racing team he operates with former NASCAR driver Hermie Sadler.
Joining Stanley as co-counsel in this Hanover County case is another lawyer/legislator, Senate Minority Leader Ryan McDougle, R-Hanover County. The presence of so many “Rs” in this case is ironic because it’s another “R” — the Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin — who has stood in the way of legalizing, regulating and taxing these games.
Before we get to the curious question of why a machine activated by a clerk is legal while a machine activated by a coin is illegal, a brief history is in order: The sudden rise of these games in Virginia prompted the General Assembly to pass a law in 2020 to ban them. That ban was pushed back during the pandemic on the grounds that taxing them could provide money for the state’s COVID-19 relief fund. When the ban finally took effect in 2021, Sadler sued — with Stanley as his attorney — and won a court injunction to keep the games going. By then, the state’s pandemic-era taxing authority over the games had expired, so the injunction meant that the games could spread, with no regulation and no taxation. In October 2023, the Virginia Supreme Court dissolved that injunction, making the games illegal again.
The 2024 General Assembly session was dominated by a political fight over these games. Convenience store operators flocked to Richmond to make their case. They argued the revenue from the game was essential to their business model; they also pointed to the taxes the games generated (and in some localities, but not all, it had been enough to fund several teacher positions). Opponents argued that these games involve no skill whatsoever and are simply unregulated gambling.
It was a politically fascinating battle because “skill” games split both Democrats and Republicans. While Stanley has become synonymous with the games, it was a Democrat, state Sen. Aaron Rouse of Virginia Beach, who carried the legislation. In the end, nothing changed. Youngkin proposed so many “exclusion zones” around schools, churches and child care centers that there simply wasn’t much territory left for the games.
This year’s session did not generate the spectacle of convenience store owners, all in yellow T-shirts, flooding committee rooms in Richmond. Instead, there was a quieter, more “inside baseball” approach to write legalization into the state budget. That failed, though, so the games remain illegal, but that doesn’t mean they’re not around.
These games are much like cannabis. Both are technically illegal to sell in Virginia, but the free market is a powerful force for innovation, be it good or bad. Across the state, but especially in Southwest Virginia, we’ve seen cannabis stores pop up under the guise of being members-only “clubs” or “adult share” venues where, if you buy an overpriced T-shirt or sticker, you’re “gifted” with a bag of weed.
In the case of “skill” games, the operators have devised machines that they say are legally compliant, and which critics say remain blatantly illegal. It was those games that prompted the Hanover County Sheriff’s Office to send an undercover officer into the Breez-In.
State law defines an illegal gambling machine as “any machine, apparatus, implement, instrument, contrivance, board, or other thing, or electronic or video versions thereof” that is “dependent upon the insertion of a coin or other object for their operation.”
Pace-O-Matic, the Georgia-based company responsible for many of these games, has simply invented a machine that doesn’t involve “the insertion of a coin or other object.” Instead, players must go to the store cashier to get the QVS2 machine activated remotely. This is partly intended to get around objections that kids could play these games, when no kids are allowed into casinos to play slot machines.
However, critics of “skill games” see this as a not-so-clever ruse. Last September, Attorney General Jason Miyares (a Republican, if it matters) sent a memo to prosecutors, police chiefs and sheriffs across the state in which he advised that it is a “manifest absurdity” to say the QVS2 games are legal simply because the law doesn’t mention the possibility of the store clerk pushing a button to turn them on. The point, he said, was the same: It takes money to operate them; the manner in which that money is turned into the machine’s activation is irrelevant. The bottom line, Miyares said: “The QVS2 device therefore is a ‘skill game,’ meaning that it is a banned ‘gambling device’ under Va. Code § 18.2-325.”
One month and two days after Miyares issued that advisory, the Hanover sheriff sent a deputy to the Breez-In store.
The ruling in Wednesday’s hearing in Hanover County General District Court seems to undermine that advisory.
The prosecution of David Bogese, the owner of the Prince George County-based chain, ended abruptly at what is usually the halfway point of a criminal trial. After the prosecution makes its case, the defense always files a “motion to strike,” to argue that the prosecution hasn’t even met the minimum threshold for making its case. Usually this fails. This time it did not.
Stanley argued that since no “coin or object” was involved to start the machine, it couldn’t have been illegal: “What we fail to have here is that there’s no object which is a tangible thing that you can hold and feel. There is no object that’s required to play the game,” Stanley told the judge. “And therefore, there’s no way that the commonwealth has risen to its burden even at this point.”
Judge Hugh Campbell agreed. He faulted the legislature for passing a poorly written law and said he could understand how the store owner felt he was complying with the law since no “coin or object” was involved. “At the General Assembly, the obligation would be to make this statute more specific, improve the wording in order to make it enforceable against people who aren’t sure, and that Mr. Bogese, he should have the benefit of the doubt here, given the wording of the statute,” the judge said.
Not guilty.
“This is huge,” Stanley said. A court has now declared the QVS2 game legal, he said. “Justice for the little guy won over government overreach,” he said in a statement. Stanley hopes that ruling “instills confidence to all small business owners who own convenience stores and other establishments that wish to participate in the emerging Virginia gaming industry through the operation of legal skill games at their stores.”
The anti-skill game group Virginians Against Neighborhood Slot Machines said the ruling was not so clear: “The statement released by the Stanley Law Group is a clear attempt to muddy the waters and rewrite history. Pace-O-Matic and its affiliates have continually tried to enter Virginia’s gambling market through the back door — exploiting legal loopholes and resisting enforcement. The General Assembly has made it clear: so-called “games of skill” are illegal. Any attempt to reframe these machines as lawful is simply an effort to circumvent the legislature’s clear intent. Despite repeated claims to the contrary, we expect Pace-O-Matic and its affiliates to continue trying to sneak in through the backdoor and we encourage our leaders to continue enforcing the laws on the books.”
Unlike, say, a Supreme Court ruling, Campbell’s ruling does not apply statewide, only in that court, but Stanley says it’s a precedent that he will cite elsewhere. He’s already talking with prosecutors in two other localities to drop charges against store owners.
Politically, the question is what pressure this case now puts on the General Assembly to fix the law — and which way it will fix it, by writing a more clear-cut ban or by legalization, regulation and taxation.
One irony is that, while Stanley has become the unofficial spokesman for these games, he says he “abhors” all gambling. When his district included Danville, he argued against the city hosting a casino. However, now that Virginia has created a gaming industry, he thinks small businesses should be able to have a piece of the action — through “skill” games. Casinos counter that they are heavily regulated and their employees must undergo background checks in a way that convenience stores and their employees aren’t.
In a statement, the store owner said, “I am looking forward to getting back to business as usual.”
Lobbyists on both sides of this issue will be, too.
Democratic candidates for lieutenant governor back repeal of right-to-work
Five of the six Democratic candidates for lieutenant governor appeared this week in Roanoke at a forum; the sixth was out sick. All of them backed repealing the state’s right-to-work. We’ll look at what else they said as part of this week’s West of the Capital, our weekly political newsletter. Also included this week:
- A report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond has political implictions for upcoming campaigns.
- Five college presidents in Virginia sign letter protesting Trump administration actions on higher education.
- An update on when to expect to see candidate Q&As added to our Voter Guide.
- Tell us what you think about meals taxes.
- Sen. Tim Kaine visits Germany, Poland and Ukraine.
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