Gambling is back in the news in Pennsylvania. This time, the focus is on adding table games to help the state balance its budget.

It's worth remembering that the legalization of slot machines was designed to provide major property tax relief to homeowners. Few taxpayers would say slots have worked out as planned.

Now, it's table games that are being sold as a solution to help close Pennsylvania's budget gap.

And while adding table games to the existing slot machines already operating in Pennsylvania's casinos might not make the social costs of gambling much steeper, it certainly won't lessen the human damage caused by gambling.

A discussion over table games is not surprising. Many people, in fact, predicted at the time when only slot machines were being discussed that table games would not be far behind.

But if adding table games is not such a terrible idea, there is a little- known provision in the table games legislation that does sound like a very bad idea — maybe not a bad deal for casinos, but certainly a bad deal for gamblers.

That provision, which a Philadelphia newspaper described as being "tucked into the extensive bill," would allow casinos to extend credit to gamblers.

Critics correctly warn of potentially terrible consequences if casinos can make loans to desperate, and possibly drunk, gamblers who have lost all their cash and tapped out their credit cards while playing at the casino. Is that the right environment in which to take out a loan? The casino loans might have some people putting up cars or homes as collateral. Who can possibly think that such a scenario is a good idea? Casinos clearly do, and the lawmakers they've influenced with lobbying or campaign contributions do too.

In a radio ad designed to build opposition to the provision, the announcer says, "Banks can't serve drinks. Casinos shouldn't make loans."

That seems obvious to most reasonable people. But not all state lawmakers see a problem with the provision. And casino operators do note that the practice is allowed at casinos in other states, including those in Atlantic City, N.J.

When asked about the casinos-making-loans provision, state Rep. Dwight Evans, D-Phildelphia, said, through a spokeswoman, he was more concerned about creating more casino jobs than "the minutiae of the language."

Maybe that's Evans' viewpoint. But for many gamblers and their families, allowing casinos to make loans to tapped-out and tipsy gamblers who've enjoyed an evening of free drinks is far more troubling than mere language minutiae.

Once again, voters can see that some state lawmakers have far less concerns for citizens than for special interests with campaign checks.

Casinos selling loans is a bad idea and should be stripped from the bill before table games advance.