Buried in a gaming bill that began as a reform measure (only in Harrisburg) is a provision that will enable casinos to provide customers with in-store credit.

Call it easy credit for easy marks.

It's another example of why, when Gov. Rendell leaves office, his most lasting legacy may well be that he made it easy for every schlub in Pennsylvania to gamble his life away.

This bill winding its way through the legislature will make it easier for people who shouldn't be gambling their paychecks to keep doubling down.

Blew through all your cash? Credit cards maxed out? Buzzed up but feeling bold from the free booze supplied during your casino visit?

Don't leave now; your luck may change.

Thanks to the easy-credit provision, you could be back rolling snake eyes without leaving either of the two temporary, windowless, corrugated buildings coming soon to Philadelphia.

Casino operators say the credit provision is needed as part of the state's rapid expansion from slots alone to full-blown casinos offering blackjack, craps, roulette, and other table games of chance.

The casinos add that the credit provision is standard industry practice in places like Las Vegas.

Yeah, but they don't call that gaming mecca Lost Wages for nothing.

Industry practice or not, that doesn't make it right. Even when Pennsylvania's flawed gaming bill was passed in the dark of night in 2004, the legislature had enough sense to prohibit the extension of in-store credit.

Why back off now?

The gaming industry says it needs to be able to provide credit to the high rollers expected once the slots parlors morph. But the credit access will also be there for problem gamblers and those who can least afford it.

That's especially troubling in Philadelphia, where about a quarter of the population lives in poverty and many are on the edge.

Sure, the casino operators say they will do credit checks and give the money only to those who can afford it. That's the same argument predatory lenders made when giving exorbitant mortgages to poor, elderly, and minority homeowners, many of whom are now facing foreclosure. Applying that same mentality to gamblers is dangerous.

Don't think the casinos won't extend credit even to the regulars who are addicted. Less than 20 percent of customers generate most of the revenue for a casino.

They are the ones the casinos want to keep coming back. And if they are short on cash, credit will get them to the next payday.

Studies show that easy access to credit accelerates the likelihood that compulsive gamblers will keep gambling.

Having already brought gambling to the doorstep for many in Pennsylvania, Rendell and the legislature should not exacerbate gambling problems by allowing casinos to offer credit to those who can least afford it.