NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Gas prices may be hurting wallets, but could they also be harming Tennessee’s future?

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Many drivers said they feel that they don't have the extra money to buy lottery tickets, which is a main revenue source for Tennessee’s lottery scholarships.

With prices anywhere from $3.30 to $3.50, some people may be making changes to their driving habits, but continuing education could suffer if people alter their lottery ticket-buying routines.

To understand how much gas prices are draining drivers is to meet a man who had to literally give a part of himself for cash.

"I donated plasma for gas, pretty much," said Ronald Thigepen.

But he said he hardly feels down on his luck.

"I actually came back from plasma bank and found a lottery ticket on the ground," he said. "So I got two free dollars."

He said the lottery ticket cash also went toward the purchase of a tank of gas.

But gas and the lottery are hardly helping each other out.

"It’s either go somewhere or take a chance. If you got family and kids, you can’t take a chance, you got to put gas in your car to get around," said Thigepen’s friend Antquan Merrit.

The only lottery ticket Merrit has had his hands on lately is the free one they found, which means the state is losing out.

"That will give us less money with which to expand the current lottery scholarships," said Sen. Randy McNally.

McNally said one game has sold half as much as it did last year and that while a downturn in the economy usually leads to a rise in ticket sales, 85 percent of lottery tickets are sold at gas stations, and the temptation to buy a lottery ticket lessens with higher gas prices.

"It’s hard to buy them with gas being expensive," said Thigepen.

"My brother, he got a scholarship for I believe $4,000 from the lottery," Thigepen said.

While state lottery officials said there's been a slight dip in sales since gas prices have gone up, they said that overall last year, lottery profits were up. Lottery officials go in front of the state's funding board next week to talk about the budget.

Now that there's a $400 million lottery surplus to work with, they're trying to figure out the best way to use the money to expand the scholarship program.