如果告訴您——一個中了3.15億美元“頭彩”的人會在四年后因開巨額“空頭”支票而被起訴——您或許不會相信。但2002年美國Powerball（“強力球”）彩票頭獎得主Jack Whittaker（杰克·惠特克），正在以其中彩后的親身經歷告訴我們，意外之財未必能給人帶來幸福、平安或永久的財富。

請看外電相關報道：Caesars casino is suing the winner of a $315 million lottery jackpot, 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.

報道中的jackpot就是眾人夢寐以求的“頭彩”，也可用lottery jackpot來表示。

Jackpot起源于一種叫做“暗撲克”的賭博游戲，J（Jack）指畫有“仆人頭像”的紙牌，牌位低于Queen（皇后），而pot指游戲者一局下的“賭注”。游戲規定，只有游戲者持有兩張Jack時才可以叫牌，而且在叫牌之前每個人必須押上一定的賭注。經過幾輪的叫牌，賭注金額會越積越多，最后的贏家將獲得所有的賭資。Jackpot由此而來。

隨著Jackpot（累積賭注）詞義的擴大，人們開始用它來形容“頭彩；好運”，如我們平常所說的“中頭彩”就可以用詞組hit the jackpot來形容。再看下面一個例句：

Larry hit the jackpot when he discovered oil on his land. 拉里發了，他在自家地里發現了石油。


(英語點津陳蓓編輯）