Mom Who Gambled at Pennsylvania Casino While 14-Month-Old in Car Arrested

Adults who leave their infant or small children unattended to enter casino properties and gamble for what could be hours is a recurrent theme in the news cycle.

Baby Rescued in an 80-degree Fahrenheit Weather from a Casino Parking Lot

Unfortunately, despite the better efforts of private properties and regulators, this continues to be the case, with a New Jersey woman driving up to Pennsylvania to gamble away for hours while her 14-month-old was left unattended in a car in the parking lot.

The Bansalem Police Department was notified about the incident and responded to the Parx Casino, where the car and the baby were left. The baby was found asleep in the car and was perspiring. 

Police acted promptly, taking a lockout kit to open the door and rescue the baby, who was “very hot” to the touch, with the child taken to a hospital for further medical evaluation, and its mother, one L.D., 37, of Willingboro, New Jersey, was apprehended inside the property. 

The mother parked outside at 6:30 pm, and the child was not discovered until 8:30 pm. L.D. has since been charged with the endangerment of the welfare of a child as well as a summary charge of leaving a child unattended in a vehicle. The temperature was recorded at 80 degrees Fahrenheit. 

This is just the latest case in a series of similar incidents where children have been left unattended. Casinos in Pennsylvania have been beefing up their security teams and inspecting their parking lots more carefully, but there have been omissions. 

Cases of Adults Abandoning Children in Parking Lots to Gamble Happen Frequently

Parx Casino is likely going to face regulatory action for discovering the child so late, as casinos bear the burden of ensuring that this does not happen on their territory.

The casino will most likely be fined by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB), and the mother will be placed on the Involuntary Exclusion List, which the state maintains to bar such individuals from accessing its gaming facilities. 

Last December, the PGCB banned four individuals over similar offenses, leaving their children unattended while the perpetrators were gambling away at state-based casinos.