HARRISBURG — “It’s the sounds, the lights, the competition or the experience of a lifetime. Everyone comes for a different reason but leaves a modern cowboy.”, the premier summer festival in Wyoming that bills itself as the world’s largest outdoor rodeo and Western celebration, complete with concerts, carnivals, parades, cook-offs, an air show, and even professional bull-riding contests.
The trip to Wyoming is the latest example of a largely behind-the-scenes war of cash and influence between skill game operators like Pace-O-Matic and casino owners and other powerful gambling interests in the state. In a statement, a Pace-O-Matic spokesperson said the company, through its Wyoming subsidiary Cowboy Skill, was a sponsor of the Cheyenne Frontier Days this past July, and hosted nearly 600 guests at the event, including five Pennsylvania lawmakers.
He said the company would report all expenditures related to lawmakers on its lobbying disclosure forms and expected legislators would also report the trip on their annual ethics statements. Though elected officials are allowed to receive gifts of any value, they have to disclose gifts worth more than $250, as well as any travel and hospitality over $650.
State Rep. Marci Mustello also went to Wyoming to the festival as a guest of Pace-O-Matic, she told Spotlight PA. The company’s machines, she said, “could be a good revenue stream” for the state, taverns, and American Legions. The games are not authorized by the state’s gambling law and are not regulated by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. As a result, they are not taxed like other gambling devices.
this sometimes leads to cozy relationships between lobbyists and lawmakers working on this issue at times
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