Make no mistake about it – Marie Ciccarone of Standish is no patsy.

Sure, she's played the Maine State Lottery religiously every week since it was founded in 1974. And sure, that adds up to about $7,300 she's shelled out over 35 years, with only about $400 coming back in prizes.

But Ciccarone, 66, sees her lottery habit not so much as a road to quick riches, but rather a way to "donate" $4 a week to her beloved state of Maine, with "a little fun" thrown in on the side.

That is, until last week.

"I'm out," Ciccarone said Friday, sitting at her kitchen table with a blank Tri-State Megabucks Plus order form in her hand. "And I'm not looking back."

Why so, after all these years?

"I think it's just become a way to gouge people," she replied. "Most of the people playing it, I think, are the people who can least afford it – and that saddens me."

More on her conscience later. First, a little background on Ciccarone.

She owns her home just outside Standish village, which she shared with her mother before her mother passed away last summer.

She's a retired bookkeeper who lives comfortably on her Social Security and savings, which she's always invested "very conservatively" in certificates of deposit because the mere notion of putting it into stocks "would horrify me."

"I'm not a gambler," Ciccarone said. "I know it may not seem that way, but I'm really not."

But she loves her home state. And from the day in June 1974 that the Maine State Lottery held its first drawing on what was then called the "Play ME.!" game, she's seen nothing wrong with tossing $4 a week into the kitty (for years, her mother did the same) and seeing what, if anything, happens.

"They used to have it on television, and you'd see all the balls come down and that was kind of exciting for everyone," Ciccarone recalled. "My mother would never miss it."

Back then, at 50 cents a pop, Ciccarone's $4 would buy her eight entries in the weekly drawing.

"I figured it was the price of a takeout sandwich," she said. "And I could afford that."

She never won big – to the best of her recollection, she's collected $40 "no more than 10 times" over the years on the two numbers that by now are "etched in my brain."

But it wasn't Ciccarone's lack of success that bugged her. It was how the game kept changing.

First, the price went up to a dollar a ticket.

Then in 1986, Maine launched the Tri-State Megabucks game with Vermont and New Hampshire.

The jackpots rose dramatically, but the odds of winning plummeted. (That's when Ciccarone's mother quit in disgust.)

Then the pool of numbers increased ... then they started adding that "bonus number" that nobody could figure out ... then they went from one drawing per week to two ...

"Each time, I felt duped," Ciccarone said. "But I went along with it by adjusting the way I play."

Finally, last Sunday, they doubled the price and required that you pick the right "megaball" number in order to win the jackpot.

"More complicated – and more money. If I wanted to stay hooked on my two numbers, it would cost me double," Ciccarone said. "And that's not OK with me."

Contacted in Augusta at the Bureau of Alcoholic Beverages and Lottery Operations, Director Dan Gwadosky said last Sunday's change was designed to save the Tri-State Megabucks game from going bust within the next year or two.

Noting that the game's sales have fallen 42 percent since 2000, Gwadoksy said lottery commissioners from the three states were well aware that upping the price in economic times like these might not go over well with some players.

"The goal of the price change is not necessarily to generate dramatic revenue increases, but rather to hold our own (on Tri-State Megabucks)," Gwadosky said.

Nor, he noted,...