"One child left unattended is too many," said Parx's general counsel, Thomas Bonner. "We want to make sure it doesn't happen again."
Only it did, three hours later, when Trenton mechanic Alexander Salter Jr. shut his 12-year-old grandson in an SUV for a half-hour without keys, air-conditioning, or water. The temperature outside: an astonishing 94 degrees.
In case you've lost count, Salter joins a losers club of seven adults accused of endangering 13 children - including a 15-month-old - during the region's hottest summer in history.
At this point, the only thing more shocking than the fact that no one died is that the politicians who thought casinos would be swell neighbors never anticipated such desperation and depravity.
"Of all the problems we thought about that were going to happen," said State Rep. Gene DiGirolamo (R., Bucks), "this is one thing that was probably inconceivable."
Confession time
If we're making confessions, I laughed when I heard that DiGirolamo and State Sen. Robert "Tommy" Tomlinson, a fellow Bucks Republican, seek tougher criminal sanctions to end the freak show. The legislators believe the prospect of seven years behind bars - plus a lifetime of scorn and slammed doors - will somehow deter adults from losing their minds.
That presumes an ability to think logically after you've blown the rent and diaper money. These parents aren't focused on the future. They're obsessed with the action, convinced their luck will change.
Parx's kid-in-car-crisis is reminiscent of the hand-wringing after an unattended 7-year-old girl was raped and strangled in 1997 at the Primadonna casino in Nevada. As it did then, the casino industry profits from mixed messages, luring families in the door with shows and water parks but banning children from the gaming floor.
