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 lotteryjackpot, claiming he bounced checks worth $1.5 million trying to cover gambling losses.

Since his Powerball win in 2002, Whittaker has been beset 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 lawsuit 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。


(英语点津陈蓓编辑）