AG’s office says it seized hundreds of illegal gambling machines disguised as skill games

A sign in a convenience store window advertises skill games, slot machine-like devices. (Peter Hall/Capital-Star)

The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office announced Tuesday it seized hundreds of illegal gambling machines allegedly supplied to storefront casinos and other businesses by a pair of companies owned by a Pittsburgh man with prior convictions for illegal gambling.

The owner is also named in a 2024 grand jury presentment charging a former executive of skill game maker Pace-O-Matic with taking kickbacks for ignoring complaints to the company about illegal gambling machines.

The attorney general’s office said its agents and state troopers seized more than 400 illegal gambling devices from dozens of western Pennsylvania establishments in a series of raids in March.

J.J. Amusements and Buffalo Skill Games are each charged with a felony count of being a corrupt organization, according to court documents. No lawyers for the companies are named in the court filings.

”These devices were essentially slot machines dressed up as skill games,” Attorney General Dave Sunday said in a statement. “I commend our partners at the Pennsylvania State Police for helping disband a large-scale operation that netted a tremendous amount of illegal gambling profits.”

A search of the companies’ warehouse in Homestead, Allegheny County, uncovered $175,000 in cash and other signs of illegal gambling. The facility also had an elaborate surveillance system with dozens of monitors streaming live video and audio from the gambling locations, court documents say.

According to the charging documents, skill games are distinguishable from video gambling devices because they require players to use their judgment to win. The machines seized are similar to video slot machines, except that if only two symbols match, the machine prompts the player to “nudge” the third into place to recover their initial bet plus a small prize, the court documents say. 

While a spokesman for the attorney general’s office said it is pursuing charges only against Conley’s companies, court records show Conley was charged last year with illegal gambling offenses by the Cumberland County district attorney’s office. An attorney for Conley identified in a court filing did not immediately return a call Wednesday.

Federal court records show Conley was convicted of gambling and money laundering in 1995.

Conley and his son, John D. Conley, are also named in court documents as the leaders of an…