如果告诉您——一个中了3.15亿美元“头彩”的人会在四年后因开巨额“空头”支票而被起诉——您或许不会相信。但2002年美国Powerball（“强力球”）彩票头奖得主Jack Whittaker（杰克·惠特克），正在以其中彩后的亲身经历告诉我们，意外之财未必能给人带来幸福、平安或永久的财富。

请看外电相关报道：Caesars casino is suing the winner of a $315 million lottery¹ jackpot, claiming he bounced checks worth $1.5 million trying to cover gambling² losses.

Since his Powerball win in 2002, Whittaker has been beset³ by problems. He's been arrested for drunken driving, had hundreds of thousands of dollars stolen from him, and his granddaughter Bragg died of a drug overdose, just months after Tribble's death which triggered another lawsuit⁴ against Whittaker.

报道中的jackpot就是众人梦寐以求的“头彩”，也可用lottery jackpot来表示。

Jackpot起源于一种叫做“暗扑克”的赌博游戏，J（Jack）指画有“仆人头像”的纸牌，牌位低于Queen（皇后），而pot指游戏者一局下的“赌注”。游戏规定，只有游戏者持有两张Jack时才可以叫牌，而且在叫牌之前每个人必须押上一定的赌注。经过几轮的叫牌，赌注金额会越积越多，最后的赢家将获得所有的赌资。Jackpot由此而来。

随着Jackpot（累积赌注）词义的扩大，人们开始用它来形容“头彩；好运”，如我们平常所说的“中头彩”就可以用词组hit the jackpot来形容。再看下面一个例句：

Larry hit the jackpot when he discovered oil on his land. 拉里发了，他在自家地里发现了石油。