Pennsylvania is careening down a path to still another expansion of legalized gambling.

Tucked inside the nice package that resulted in a new state budget – 101 days after it was supposed to be in place – is language that will allow the state’s slots parlors to add table games.

It would put Pa. casinos in position to steal even more business from their counterparts in Atlantic City and Delaware, even Las Vegas.
Basically, anything you can do in Atlantic City, you’ll now be able to do down at Harrah’s in Chester.

Poker your thing? Take a seat. Like the idea of tangling with a dealer at blackjack? You’re in business. Craps or roulette your cup of tea?
Roll the dice, baby.

Not talked about so much is the down side of all this gambling, what it does to those inclined to be lured to the tables. Make no mistake, there is a social cost – in ruined lives – of all this gambling.

Which is why this item from just down I-95 at Delaware Park caught my eye yesterday.

A Wilmington woman was arrested inside the casino there. Her violation had nothing to do with anything she was doing inside the gaming hall.
Instead, police wanted to talk to her about something she did before she went in. In particular something she left behind.

Police said the woman left her 12-year-old son alone in her car in the parking lot while she went in to try her luck in the casino. Police said the boy was in the car for more than two hours Sunday afternoon.

The woman told police she wanted to win some money to take her son to the movies.

Yeah, there’s a downside to all this gambling.