Pennsylvania is now considering adding keno to its lottery arsenal.
There also are rumblings of the state getting its foot in the door of online gaming, if only to keep pace with New Jersey in the ever-cutthroat battle for every last gambling dollar out there.
One after another, the bidders for the second and final casino license in the city of Philadelphia tout what they can do for the city.
Increasingly, gambling is seen by state and municipal officials as a cure-all for the ever-present financial squeeze they find themselves mired in these days.
What they don't often talk about is the down side to all this gaming.
Oh, they always manage to include it, perhaps a blip in their presentations. Some social studies expert usually shows up at public hearings on expanded gaming and warns of the dangers that lurk within this booming business.
It's a little different when you put a face with those issues.
Meet James Bryan.
He was once a respected Collingdale councilman. Yesterday he was arrested for stealing almost $3 million dollars from his employer, Wescott Electric in Aston.
Bryan's downfall? Delco District Attorney Jack Whelan said Bryan suffered from a gambling addiction and threw away most of the stolen loot at Harrah's casino in Chester.
Whelan detailed Bryan's penchant for the card tables at Harrah's, along with sports betting and buying lottery tickets as something akin to a full-time job.
That's not something you usually hear in the pitches about all the great things Pennsylvania can do with the booty from legalized gambling.
We've run any number of stories on people charged with fleecing relatives, youth orgnizations, charity groups and employers out of millions of dollars. Inevitably there is a common theme. A lot of the money went to feed a gambling habit.
In the business, I think they call that crapping out.
It's one thing to hear from an expert in sociology. It's another thing altogether to see it walking out of a courtroom in handcuffs.
Just ask James Bryan. Or the people at Wescott Electric who saw $3 million dollars from their business go down the drain.
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