-- Valdosta, Ga. -- November 29, 2012 --

In Georgia alone more than $42 million dollars was spent on Powerball Lottery tickets.

Lowndes County resident Keera Thomas said "you can't sleep! You can't sleep at all. I woke up at 12 and checked the numbers and I was dissapointed from, from then. "

Kelly Williams is with the Greenleaf Counseling Center. She said "some people spend an entire paycheck on that chance to be able to win. Because the odds are so NOT in their favor people spend more money being able to increase their chances of winning when in fact they're decreasing their chances of having a stable household."

At one point Powerball tickets were selling at a rate of 130,000 per minute nationwide. Now all most people are left with are the paper tickets worth nothing.

But not everyone sees it as a total loss. Because some of the lottery proceeds go to education... many feel it's still worth the gamble.

Keith Flucas is a Lowndes County resident. He said "if you can't play you can't win. And it's my way of helping out the school system."

Kelly Williams went on to say "sometimes people can justify their behaviors because they're playing into or they're paying for their children to go to college or different things like that. That they can kind of justify in their mind of why it's okay to spend that because they're helping other people."

If you know someone with a gambling addiction or have one yourself and want to seek treatment contact the Greenleaf Counseling Center at (229) 247-4357