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A Lycoming County manufacturer of electronic Pennsylvania Skill Games has announced it had to lay off a sizable amount of its employees.
Miele Manufacturing, 66 Mall Parkway in Muncy Township, has laid off about 42-43% of its workforce, which amounts to 60 employees with about 80 remaining, according to company Chief Operating Officer Jeff Millay.
"We've started some layoffs at our headquarters and had some layoffs in our satellite offices as well," he said.
These are "non-artificial intelligence (AI) replaceable positions," he said.
These are technicians whose jobs can't be replaced by a computer, he noted.
The company still has its amusement business and a few projects on the manufacturing side that require keeping those personnel, he said.
These are mainly technician positions that are needed to work on the automated teller machines (ATMs), pinball machines and pool tables.
Manufacturing and sales of the games stopped with the state Supreme Court ruling. Thousands of machines are in storage, he said.
Millay noted how these predicted layoffs were "heartwrenching," as these were "family-sustaining" wage earners and "good people."
The layoffs happened as a result of the court ruling June 15, which made it so businesses need a state Gaming Control Board license to operate skill games, obtainable only by casinos and truck stop establishments.
The court ruled the skill games are slot machines under the Gaming Act and Crimes Code, reversing the Commonwealth Court decisions that had kept them in a legal gray area.
The 120-day court-stay, running to Oct. 13, had two stated purposes: To give businesses time to wind down, and to give the General Assembly an opportunity to come up with legislation licensing, taxing, and regulating the machines.
The legislature didn't pass a bill in the window, the court denied both extension requests on Oct. 9, and state police enforcement began Oct. 14.
The ban is having a snowball effect for those which depended on the revenue stream.
The ban is already impacting bars, veterans' clubs, restaurants, small businesses, and the workers and suppliers who support this industry.
The ban also negatively impacts municipalities and school districts regarding amusement tax if it is set up for their budgets.
The layoffs at Miele Group follow those at Republic Amusements of Camp Hill, which in October filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) notice with the state Department of Labor and Industry, giving 60 days' notice of layoffs last month that it would cut 81 jobs.
Republic Amusements said roughly 1,000 businesses it served will lose revenue.
The administration's budget included a proposal to tax skill games at 52 % like video gaming terminals , with 10 % going to host counties and municipalities and the rest largely to the general fund for schools, public safety, and taxpayer relief.
The legislature never passed it -- the July 2026 budget left skill games out entirely.