Enacting a plan to ensure children aren’t left unattended on a casino property is a great idea, but it’s astonishing that it took 147 incidents involving 268 children over four years at one site for the plan to be developed. That’s our takeaway from the announcement this week that Wind Creek Casino in Bethlehem is putting new measures in place to not only deter parents or guardians from leaving kids alone, but detecting incidents as well. To be fair to Wind Creek, Las Vegas Sands owned the casino for part of the four years assessed and deserves some criticism. Blame for the delay in not only enacting the plan, but publicly acknowledging the severity of the problem, also falls on the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, which has regulatory oversight of the casino and should have been pressing this issue much sooner. Even the Northampton County District Attorney’s Office, which has jurisdiction over prosecution of criminal activity at the casino, seemed caught off guard by the announcement. The assistant district attorney who handles child abuse cases said neither Wind Creek nor the liquor control board contacted the office about the issue. This was a major oversight considering the role law enforcement could have as a deterrent. As for what’s in Wind Creek’s plan, there will be more signage in and around the casino, increased training for staff, and mobile patrols in parking areas and foot patrols inside by outside security. This is a good start. It would have been better had it happened long before the number of unattended children surpassed 100.