When I was a kid, gambling meant my dad taking the bus to Atlantic City, betting lines in the back of the sports page, and Vegas Vic on WIP. It wasn’t available in every home, every classroom, every phone, 24/7.

Today, it is. Nearly a decade after Pennsylvania legalized online gambling and sports betting, the question isn’t whether gambling should be legal. The question is whether our consumer protections have kept pace with an industry that is evolving at the speed of AI.

As a nurse practitioner, I view problem gambling through a public health lens. Problem gambling is associated with financial hardship, anxiety, depression, family instability and even suicide. These concerns are especially acute among young adults, particularly young men, who are increasingly exposed to online gambling platforms and aggressive marketing tactics. A recent Inquirer piece I was interviewed for cited experts calling gambling addiction among young adults “the next opioid epidemic.”

And we can’t rely on gambling companies to police themselves. These corporations don’t make most of their money from the occasional $20 wager. Research has consistently shown that a disproportionate share of gambling revenue comes from people experiencing gambling-related harm.

The issue we’re addressing in the Pennsylvania General Assembly is not whether gambling should be legal. It is. The issue is whether consumer protections in Pennsylvania have kept pace with technology.

Today, many online gambling companies allow people to fund their accounts with credit cards, enabling them to gamble with borrowed money. At the same time, these companies are aggressively targeting people to place more and more bets. This includes those who have voluntarily placed themselves on Pennsylvania’s self-exclusion list — a program designed to help individuals stop gambling. Some of these individuals are finding themselves the targets of advertisements and promotional offers from betting companies encouraging them to return.

That’s a bit like setting up shop outside a recovery meeting and trying to lure people back into the very behavior they’re working to overcome.

That isn’t responsible gaming. It’s putting profits ahead of people.

That’s why I recently introduced a bipartisan package of legislation with state Rep. Jamie Flick (R., Lycoming/Union) to establish commonsense guardrails for online gambling.

Our legislation would limit excessive deposits into online gambling accounts, restrict predatory marketing practices, strengthen protections for young people, prohibit the use of credit cards to fund online gambling accounts, and prevent gambling operators from marketing to individuals who have voluntarily enrolled in Pennsylvania’s self-exclusion program.

Corporations should not profit from addiction. They should not profit from people sinking deeper into debt. And they should not profit from individuals who are actively trying to stop gambling.

Similar protections have been advanced in other states and have attracted bipartisan support because they focus on consumer protection, not prohibition.

Pennsylvania has a responsibility to ensure that corporate profits are not prioritized over commonsense safeguards. We can support legal gaming while also protecting consumers, families and communities from preventable harm.

Corporations may be in the business of gambling. But as a Commonwealth, we cannot allow them to gamble with the financial security, mental health and future of Pennsylvanians.

Tarik Khan represents Roxborough, Manayunk, Wissahickon and parts of Chestnut Hill and East Falls.