All four of my readers know that I’ve been recently concerned about child-friendly instant lottery games from the Pennsylvania Lottery.  I’ll be writing to my representatives in Harrisburg and to the folks at the PA Lottery, asking them to consider adding a warning label to the front of instant lottery games and other lottery tickets.

Warning labels adorn various products in our marketplace – from mattresses to CDs containing explicit lyrics to cigarettes to cars to children’s toys to much, much more – and it seems reasonable for lottery tickets to also contain clear warnings.  Paraphrasing text from the Problem Gambling page of the PA Lottery website, such a warning could read, "Gambling can be addictive.  Compulsive gambling is a disease, just like alcohol or drug addiction."

Well, I figure that rather than just complain and moan on this website, I should do something.  I’ll keep you updated on my progress.