Stacy Garrity Corruption & Ethics Billionaires & Big Business Pennsylvania

84% of Stacy Garrity's Last-Minute $5.3 Million Came From Skill-Game Interests. Her Plan for the Machines Is a $500-Per-Machine Fee — the Figure the Industry Backs.

In the last month of Pennsylvania's governor's race, Stacy Garrity raised $5.3 million — nearly five times what she'd raised in the whole campaign before. $4.5 million of it came from three skill-game donors. Gov. Shapiro wants to tax the machines like casino slots, at 52%. Garrity wants a $500 fee per machine, the same figure the industry backs.

MAGA Report Cards · Oct 25, 2026

84% of Stacy Garrity's Last-Minute $5.3 Million Came From Skill-Game Interests. Her Plan for the Machines Is a $500-Per-Machine Fee — the Figure the Industry Backs. — Photo: WHP / CBS 21

In the final month of Pennsylvania's governor's race, Stacy Garrity's campaign suddenly had money. She raised $5.3 million, CBS 21 reports. That is nearly five times the $1.3 million she had raised in the entire campaign up to that point.

84% of it came from three donors with a stake in skill games, the gaming machines Pennsylvania has been fighting over how to regulate and tax:

$2 million from a skill-game distributor
$2 million from a nonprofit representing the operators and businesses behind skill games
$500,000 from Joseph Rocca, owner of Rite Touch Distribution, which distributes skill games around Pittsburgh

None of the three gave to Gov. Josh Shapiro.

What they're paying for

Shapiro has called for regulating skill games in every budget address since he became governor. The two candidates want very different deals:

Shapiro has called for taxing skill games at 52%, the same rate as casino slot machines, with a cap of 40,000 machines. He wants the money in the state budget, with part of it going to public transportation.
Garrity has called for a $500 fee per machine, with a cap of 50,000 machines. She says it would raise $300 million and hasn't said how she would spend it.

That $500 figure matches the industry's. WESA reported in June that the skill-game industry "is said to back a monthly $500 fee on each machine," and that earlier reporting suggested Garrity favored a per-machine fee, which the industry backs.

Rocca told CBS 21 why he gave: he hopes Garrity can get his business running again. "Believe me if I had more I'd give her more because it's desperation and when you're desperate you'll do anything," he said. Asked about the legislature's role, he said he was taking her at her word that "she would call special session and demand that they come in and come up with some responsible bill."

The money was already moving

This isn't the industry's first bet on Garrity. In June, WESA reported that Pace-O-Matic, a Georgia-based skill game company, had given nearly $2.3 million since May 2025 to the national PAC of Citizens Alliance, a conservative group whose Pennsylvania chapter pledged to knock on 750,000 doors for Garrity. At the time, her campaign hadn't clearly stated a skill games policy.

What Garrity says

Garrity frames her position as standing up for small businesses. "I'm for American Legions, I'm for VFWs, I'm for fire halls, I'm for small businesses that are really being hurt," she told CBS 21 before the finance report came out. Asked about the donations afterward, her campaign said she has been clear that any skill games deal "must keep the VFWs, American Legions, and scores of Pennsylvania small businesses in mind," and accused Shapiro of being "in the pocket of the casino and betting industry."

But the $4.5 million came from skill-game distributors and an industry group, not from the VFWs and fire halls.

This is not the first time Garrity's record has lined up with her backers. As state treasurer, her office refused to release records about a policy change that lined up with her fossil-fuel ties.

What the filings show

In the last month of the race, Stacy Garrity raised $5.3 million, and $4.5 million of it came from three donors with interests in skill games: a distributor and an industry nonprofit at $2 million each, and a Pittsburgh-area distributor at $500,000. Gov. Shapiro wants to tax the machines at 52%, like casino slots. Garrity wants a $500 fee per machine, the same figure the industry itself backs.