Rutter's Secures First C-store Approval in Pennsylvania for Video Gaming Terminals

YORK, Pa. — The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB ) granted Rutter's its first license to install video gambling at a store in Walker Township, Pa.

The convenience store retailer has applications pending for licenses at 19 other central Pennsylvania locations, reported PennLive.

The Walker Township store was the first Rutter's location to have a completed review by the PGCB staff, which was the primary reason its license was approved, according to spokesman Doug Harbach. The others are still under review.

"They may need to address some issues and that might take time on their end," Harbach said. "If remedied, they may eventually be recommended to the board for approval or, if they are not able to remedy in order to qualify under the guidelines of the act, then they may be recommended for denial. We are moving on them as quickly as our staffing will permit."

Rutter's first filed applications to add gaming terminals to some stores in early 2019, as Convenience Store News previously reported.

The c-stores with applications filed tend to be newer locations near major highways that were designed to serve truck drivers.

"They're completely different than the Rutter's down at the corner," Pam Baldwin, Rutter's director of advertising and customer engagement, previously told the news outlet. "We don't call them truck stops... But that's what they are designed to be."

Rutter's is the first major Pennsylvania c-store chain to begin the process of adding commercial gambling. Some local lawmakers have begun to explore legislation that would give communities the right to opt out of the expansion of gambling.

York-based Rutter's operates 75 locations in Pennsylvania, Maryland and West Virginia.