> [W]hat’s with the skill games at gas stations? Is it like slot machines and if so how do people get paid?

Not an expert but I believe they differ slightly from slot machines and must by law. I believe there was a first round of machines that were more slot machine like and you pushed a button and you won and lost and those are now illegal. The new machines, as I understand it, require two button presses and must require some "skill" to make it a "skill game" and not "a random press game." (They are still mostly random and hew to a fairly homogenized set out of outcomes, as I understand it.) I think from what I've seen at my local corner store (Clay St Market), small payouts the store pays like lotto and if you actually win a ton you get a ticket to redeem from the manufacturer but how one does that I do not know.