The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board has a silly solution for a serious problem.

Scores of customers at local casinos continue to leave kids locked in their cars while they go inside and gamble.

So how does the gambling board plan to address this life and death issue? With public service announcements. Ads on TV, radio, and social media will contain the following message: “Don’t Gamble with Kids.” There’s even a website.

Is that the best the Gambling Control Board members — who get paid $145,000 a year to meet once or twice a month — could come up with?

Any parent or a guardian who leaves a child in a car to go gamble — sometimes for hours — likely has a serious addiction problem. Running a few ads is unlikely to change their behavior.

After surge in kids left alone in casino parking lots, Pennsylvania launches crackdown on errant parents

Even more disturbing, this is not a new problem. It has been going on for years at casinos across the country and throughout Pennsylvania. Several children have died. One woman went to prison after her 5-year-old grandson died in a hot car while she gambled in an Oklahoma casino.

In Pennsylvania, gamblers began leaving kids unattended soon after the first casino opened in 2006.

Legislation was passed to make it illegal to leave kids in cars. Gamblers can be arrested, fined, and banned from the casino. The casinos added signs and patrols in parking lots. Last year, the casino in Valley Forge installed infrared cameras to detect kids in cars after 22 incidents of children left unattended there.

None of those efforts have solved the problem. In fact, the number of children left unattended at Pennsylvania casinos jumped 60% this year compared to 2021. In all, there have been 269 recorded incidents involving 441 minors.

The knee-jerk response is to blame the adult for leaving the child alone. No doubt the adult is responsible. But the casinos and the state share some responsibility for the gambling addiction monster they created.

— The Philadelphia Inquirer