‘Tis a vague warning, delivered by Mr. Voice-Over Man in mile-a-minute, staccato monotone. Kind of what you might say to your 9-year-old when you learn that his Christmas gift from Uncle Joe is a BB gun, or to your teenager when you discover that his school nurse’s supply closet includes a stash of condoms.

Those hushed tones imply that adults enjoy a share of vices, too.

So add another to the list. Powerball is here.

Powerball used to require a hop, skip and three jumps into New Hampshire. Now, your ticket to one heart-pounding play of the Ping-Pong balls is available wherever you buy beer, cigarettes and pork rinds.

Maine’s participation could generate $9 million annually for the state’s general fund, perhaps enhancing our quality of life. At what price, though?

Imagining the windfall

With lottery tickets, we can’t be confident of our ability to handle them responsibly until we begin buying them. And sometimes that’s too late. According to current estimates, 3 percent of the adult population in the United States will experience a significant problem with gambling.

Translation: Overwhelming debt, family disruption, job loss, criminal activity or even suicide. To quote the old commercial jingle for the suddenly small-potatoes Tri-State Megabucks game, just imagine the feeling.

The rookie Powerball player’s investment of $1 to $5 won’t usher in the collapse of the Maine family, if it stays at that level. But spending often accelerates as lottery enthusiasts dreamily consider how they’d spend their $150 million windfall.

Dr. Robert Perkinson is clinical director of Keystone Treatment Center in South Dakota, where he counsels 200 compulsive gamblers in an average year.

On his Web site, Perkinson says Americans spend more money in a year on legal gambling than on movie tickets, recorded music, theme parks, spectator sports and video games combined.

When the Illinois Lottery conducted a study about spending habits, it determined that people who earn less than $10,000 a year spend six times more money playing lotteries than people who earn more than $50,000.

Odds are astronomical

Who makes less than five figures? College students. Some single moms. And teenagers.

Teens are three times more likely than adults to become problem gamblers, according to the Illinois Institute for Gambling Addiction. One in every 20 gamblers will become addicted, says the Massachusetts Council on Compulsive Gambling.

In New Hampshire in the 1990s, television and radio ads warned people not to spend their grocery money on Powerball tickets.

Here in Maine, we don’t have an alphabet organization dedicated to gambling awareness or a full-fledged media campaign to encourage safe spending. Not yet. But even the people running Powerball recognize the can of worms it could become.

“Lottery games are just that – games,” it says on Powerball.com in a section called, you guessed it, Play Responsibly.

“(They are) designed to be enjoyable entertainment for adults, and for the vast majority of lottery players, that’s exactly what they are,” it continues. “Multi-State Lottery members sell lottery tickets for the benefits of their citizens, raising millions of dollars for worthy causes and projects. (We encourage) all lottery players to be responsible in their amount of play. Never spend more than you can afford … Please remember, it’s just a game.”

A tantalizing game. Easy to play, virtually impossible to win.

If the allure of those 120,000,000-to-1 odds becomes too strong, do yourself and loved ones a favor. Call the National Council on Problem Gambling at 1-800-522-4700. Or assess the problem first at www.ncpgambling.org.

From now on, every trip to the convenience store is a potential walk past Temptation Island.

Be thinking of that other voice-over admonition: Your results may vary.

Kalle Oakes is staff columnist. He may be reached by e-mail at koakes@sunjournal.com

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