I’m an online gambler. Pennsylvania lawmakers are right to ban the use of credit cards to fund bets. | Opinion

My father was a compulsive gambler. I am a gambler, and I have occasionally used a credit card to find an online gambling account in Pennsylvania. State Sen. Wayne Fontana wants to prevent me or anyone else from doing that.

He is right.

The longtime suburban Pittsburgh lawmaker recently introduced Senate Bill 1159, intended to reduce some of the worst financial harm from gambling addiction. It would bar credit cards as the vehicle to deposit funds in accounts with any of the many online Pennsylvania casinos or sportsbooks. Credit cards would also no longer be an option to cover accounts playing the state’s iLottery via phone or computer.

My firsthand knowledge of gambling addiction comes from another era: listening on Sunday mornings to the sports-loving head of my household getting his bets down by phone with a local bookie. My dad used a code name when placing bets, which both confused and amused me.

Unlike today, there were no smartphones, laptops, or credit cards involved. And, of course, there was no such thing as the legal betting that has become widely popular in Pennsylvania since it was made possible by 2017 legislation and a decision the next year by the U.S. Supreme Court that struck down a federal law that prohibited sports gambling.

But make no mistake: Even in the 1960s and ‘70s, my father was into it heavily. He had his good qualities, but managing his finances wasn’t one of them.

Dad made a decent middle-class living as a salesman, but bill collectors were constantly calling. He always owed back taxes to the IRS. He was never able to own a home. My mother would eventually divorce him once she had a job and sufficient income to support herself.

And that’s without my father ever getting deep into debt via credit cards. He never had one. There’s no telling how perilous his many financial crises would have been if he’d had access to additional funds he didn’t actually possess, thanks to the likes of Visa, Mastercard, and American Express.

It’s different today for the throngs of people — particularly young male adults, according to studies — who are drawn to online gambling. Whether driven by the allure of sports betting with FanDuel, “live dealer” blackjack with BetMGM, or 24/7 slot machine play with Caesars, thanks to credit cards, gamblers’ access to funds parallels the ubiquitous opportunity to gamble.

Fontana doesn’t want to take away anyone’s right to bet legally. He was among those in Harrisburg who voted in support of the state’s widespread gambling expansion that included legalizing internet games seven years ago.

But he wants players restricted to using only funds they already have, such as through debit cards, bank transfers, or PayPal.

“We have an obligation to try to limit how much gambling someone does that really can’t afford it, and to try to deter addiction, in any way we can,” the senator told me in an interview last month. “We can do something to be helpful and send a message that, ‘Listen, be careful because if you like to chase, that’s what gets you in trouble.’”

“Be careful because if you like to chase, that’s what gets you in trouble.”

While Pennsylvania has come to rely on legalized gambling for tax revenue more than any other state, it has also — to its credit — done more than many other states to fund compulsive gambling education and treatment programs. But at the time the 2017 legislation was passed, there was no discussion of the credit card issue.

Since then, several other states adopting online sports betting — Iowa, Tennessee, and Massachusetts — have banned funding accounts via credit cards. That’s only a small minority among states that have legalized the activity, but negative publicity surrounding sports betting — suspensions of professional athletes, harassment of college players, excessive advertising, and more — has lawmakers and regulators nationally mulling restrictions they didn’t initially consider.

In some states, the backlash against newly legalized gambling has come in the form of revising original tax rates upward, with Illinois recently following Ohio’s lead in doing so. Pennsylvania doesn’t need to do that, as from the outset it adopted tax rates that are among the highest in the nation for casinos, sports betting, and online gambling.

The restriction suggested by Fontana would be one smaller, simpler step in the state Capitol to mitigate the potential damage to out-of-control people that has accompanied Pennsylvania’s embrace of this onetime vice.

On a recreational level, as a form of entertainment, I enjoy gambling, too. But I certainly don’t need anyone or anything making it easier for me to follow in the footsteps of the man who raised me.

Gary Rotstein is a longtime Pennsylvania journalist who has covered various facets of the state’s gambling expansion.