Instead, why not let the private sector market to Generation Z, and get commonwealth kids comfortable enough with gambling to ensure a lifelong stream of taxes to Harrisburg? Inculcate them now into the wonderful, glitzy world of gambling, when they're young and malleable.
By the time they're 21, boys and girls who might have been boringly locked into cars in casino lots will be in some ways better educated than today's 21-year-olds. Sure, more than half still won't graduate from high school, or know that the state capital is Harrisburg, but they'll be able to Tweet the location of every hot slot machine, the odds of making six the hard way (mathematics) and when to double down at blackjack (statistics).
Let's call it "No Child Parked Behind" and start educating kids at the earliest age possible in a sort of "Heads-You-Win-dergarten." Give a couple of execs from IKEA (they have a great kids area) and Sesame Place two weeks together, and they'd be able to deliver a first-class young-gamblers plan for all the state's casinos.
We'd get the special "Kid Casino" entrance where costumed characters would wave and welcome them. "Look, dad, there's Danny Dice, Ronnie Roulette and Betty the One-Armed-Bandit." For fairness, a glum Arnie the Addicted would be skulking nearby.
Certified elementary school teachers would staff the Kid Casinos. Just as regular casinos have areas for craps and blackjack, the Kids Casino would have age-appropriate rooms.
