Posted on: January 5, 2025, 09:02h.
Last updated on: January 5, 2025, 09:02h.
A former national compliance director for Georgia-based skill games manufacturer Pace-O-Matic is facing racketeering charges for operating “an illegal scam to obtain large sums of money that were derived from … illegal gambling activities,” according to Pennsylvania prosecutors.
Rick Goodling, a former Pennsylvania State Police corporal who headed the gambling unit for 15 years, is alleged to have abused his position at Pace-O-Matic to obtain more than $500,000 in bribes, The Pennsylvania Capital Star reports.
That was in return for suppressing complaints about illegal slot machines, as well as supplying Pace-O-Matic games to distributors and operators who had violated the company’s regulations.
Undercover Operation
One such distributor, Deibler Brothers Novelty Co., also charged, had been banned by Pace-O-Matic for offering its machines alongside illegal slots, according to the complaint. Goodling enabled other Pace-O-Matic clients to provide Deibler Brothers with the company’s games, prosecutors claim.
When this sparked complaints to the compliance team by other Pace-O-Matic operators, Goodling was able to abuse his position to make those complaints disappear, per court filings.
However, some took their grievances to the FBI and state police, prompting a yearslong undercover investigation. This involved police faking the retirement papers of one of its detectives so that he could get a job under Goodling at the Pace-O-Matic compliance team. The detective then worked at Pace-O-Matic for several years.
The compliance team is composed of former state troopers and liquor enforcement officers, who encourage businesses to replace illegal games with skill games, as Goodling himself testified to a state Senate committee in 2019.
Pace-O-Matic is Pennsylvania’s largest supplier of skill games. Manufacturers argue skill games cannot be classed as slots or illegal gambling games because the skill-based features they contain predominate over chance.
Remaining on the right side of “just about legal” is a delicate balance for Pace-O-Matic, and it was Goodling’s job “to weed out illegal gaming machines that should not be in the marketplace,” as he told the committee.
‘Deeply Troubled’
Pace-O-Matic told the Capital-Star in a statement that the company was deeply troubled by the charges against Goodling. He was fired from his position in late 2023 after the company became aware of a federal investigation into his taxes.
While we are monitoring the situation, law enforcement has assured us that Pace-O-Matic is not involved in or connected with any of the alleged actions or charges facing Mr. Goodling,” a Pace-O-Matic spokesperson said.
The company has since strengthened and expanded its compliance department under the leadership of former state police commissioner Frank Noonan, the spokesperson added.
