01:00 AM EST on Sunday, March 6, 2005

This is the first day of National Problem Gambling Awareness Week. If you don't think you have a gambling problem, you could be wrong. You could have a problem right in your own home.

Consider the 9-year-old girl who comes home from the Monte Carlo Theme Party that a friend's parents threw for their daughter's birthday. The girl comes home with a bundle of prizes won at the tables and can't wait for the next party.

And consider the couple who discover that their honor roll son is no longer on the honor roll. His grades are on the slide, and they want to know why.

It doesn't take much of an investigation. Instead of doing his homework, the parents find their son is watching poker on television in the hope of picking up pointers for his next round of Texas Hold 'Em.

It might come as a surprise that it's even possible to watch people playing poker on television. Who'd have thought we'd ever reach the point where there was nothing better for a teenager to do than stare at a screen on which people are picking up cards and putting down cards and saying really dramatic things like, "I'll see you and raise you five . . ."

But it's happening. Gambling now claims more time and space than ever before. It has oozed its way into basement rec rooms, bars, clubs, teenage bedrooms -- and a lot of therapists' offices.

And if you do any serious shopping, you're going to find gambling. It could be a set of poker chips expensively arranged with playing cards in a leather briefcase. It could be blackjack sets or Texas Hold 'Em sets or a tabletop roulette wheel. Retailers are giving gambling room to grow.

It is all part of a national gambling splurge that is the latest stop for the wandering American fun seeker who seems to need something new darned near every week.

And the people stopping to give gambling a try are getting younger and younger.

"There are more people in their early 20s," says Henry Lesieur, a psychologist at Rhode Island Hospital's Gambling Treatment Center. "It's because of Texas Hold 'Em. They're bottoming out. They get into it. They're successful in the beginning. Then they keep going, encounter stiffer competition than they're used to."

Lesieur considers watching Texas Hold 'Em on television as exciting as watching paint dry. But it is television that has made the game an entertainment phenomenon in the past year. There are now companies that will come into your home or your club and set up a Texas Hold 'Em tournament. And students tell Lesieur that they will often put six or eight tables together in a house and run their own tournaments.

The people who watch the game say it probably dates back to cattle-driving cowboys. It is played with a standard deck. Each player is dealt two cards face down. Then the dealer deals three cards face up and the players put together hands using those three cards in combination with the two they've been dealt. There are rounds of betting after the deals.

It is one more way to start out having fun and end up an angry loser. There are Hold 'Em tournaments at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut in which hundreds of players participate. People stand in line to play. While they stand in line, they might play something else close at hand.

And for every player at Foxwoods there might be thousands watching the game on television or playing it in the basement -- getting ready for the day when they can put some serious money on the table.

And let's not forget gambling on the Internet, where Texas Hold 'Em can be played for no money in preparation for playing for a lot of money.

It is one more layer of potential misery for those who deal with problem gambling to work through. And in Rhode Island, there was plenty to deal with before Texas Hold 'Em added to the pot.

This week, people who go to gamble at Newport Grand or Lincoln Park will meet members of the Rhode Island Council on Problem Gambling, including Henry Lesieur, on the way in. Some gamblers will no doubt prefer to walk on by and get to the video slot machines. But for those who have that nagging concern that what once was fun is now a dangerous addiction, it would be wise to stop and pick up some information and confront the warning signs.

Thomas Broffman is a former social worker, an assistant professor of social work at Eastern Connecticut State University and the president of the Rhode Island Council on Problem Gambling.

Broffman says he finds it incredible that the management of the two gambling venues in Rhode Island has welcomed the council during awareness week. He also finds it incredible that at both places, gamblers who realize they have a serious problem can "self-exclude" themselves. They can sign a form that means that if they try to get back in, they will be barred.

"There was a concern that a person would have to go back to the facility one more time to self-exclude," says Broffman. "But now it can be done by mail."

For those who do stop to talk with council members this week, there is a brief screening that will give them a good idea how serious their problem is. The questions include:

Do you lie about your gambling?

Do you seek money from other people to gamble?

Do you think you've lost control?

Rhode Island is in the middle of an area drenched in gambling. It has 1,200 lottery outlets for a population of a million people. It has two sort-of casinos and Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun in nearby Connecticut.

Lesieur has dealt with a wide range of people who have fallen to the lure of the quick hit. He has dealt with a man who defrauded a company out of a million dollars to keep on gambling. And he has dealt with homeless people who have panhandled for money to buy scratch tickets.

But the state is nowhere near the saturation point, he says. The saturation point is Nevada, where every town has a casino and every store and gas station has slot machines.

But Rhode Island is closing the gap. And with games like Texas Hold 'Em feeding the gambling fever in basements and frat houses, there's really no limit on how many people can play.

If you think you have a gambling problem, you can call 1-877-9GAMBLE or log on to RICPG.net for help.

Bob Kerr can be reached by e-mail at bkerr [at] projo.com.