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I’m one of those people, like my mother, who saves fortunes from fortune cookies. I also save my toe cheese and sculpt it into busts of famous rappers of yore. And if I must say, Tu Pac is coming along nicely. (Joke, people, joke.) Anyway, I’ll share a fortune with you now: you have an active mind and keen imagination. Why, yes fortune, I most certainly do, as do the rest of you if you’re reading my blog. More importantly my lucky numbers are 6, 17, 24, 28, 36 and 38.

Have those numbers ever done any good? Not a damn. But the Chinese my fortune taught me⎯Bai-Yu=Rabbit⎯has come in handy on more than one occasion. (If only I had another that taught me how to say, “stylish hat.”) Regardless of my fortunes and lucky numbers, let’s talk about gambling and the Louisiana Lottery and those crazy billboards advertising the Powerball jackpot. How do those work? I picture about 50 leprechauns standing atop one another to change the numerical value. Or maybe one strapping young lad shimmying up the pole lumberjack-style to turn the numbers like Vanna White flips letters.

Well, I’ll explain that and more below. Per usual, if you have a question, send it to me here. Those of you who have sent questions, I’m working on them in no particular order. Those of you who haven’t submitted questions, give your mental hamster some caffeine, would you?

Question: How does that Louisiana Lottery Powerball billboard work?

Answer: With help from aluminum, satellites and sunshine.

You know the kind of sign I’m talking about. It looks like a giant alarm clock and somehow the numbers magically change to correspond with the Powerball jackpot. With 28 of these Powerball signs in the state, four are in Baton Rouge: Florida @ Airline; Interstate 10 @ College Drive; I-12 @ Airline; and I-110 @ Hiawatha Street. The sign at College Drive, the one that furrowed my brow this week, was installed in 1995, the same time Louisiana Lottery joined the Powerball game. The billboard contains an aluminum cabinet with three boxes, each with seven aluminum panels that can flip to form digits (like an alarm clock flips). The digit boxes on the board are 8 feet and can display a jackpot amount up to $999 million. Equipment that comprises these display boxes is leased from Sunshine Electronic Display and is typically changed out every eight to 10 years.

After Powerball drawings (Wednesday and Saturday evenings at 9:59 p.m.), Sunshine Electronic Display receives the new jackpot information from the Multistate Lottery Association that runs Powerball on behalf of member states. Then usually between midnight and 5 a.m., Sunshine transmits the information via satellite to the billboards and POOF! the numbers change. Ain’t technology grand?

So who ensures the Powerball number is correct? Well, you, me and anyone paying attention. All Louisiana Lottery employees informally monitor the sign’s amount as do customer service representatives. Kimberly Chopin, communications manager of Louisiana Lottery says, “And if we don't hear about it from an employee, we most certainly will get a cell phone call from a loyal player or retailer who noticed a discrepancy.” Play on then, playas, and keep checking those signs.

Thanks to Chopin at Louisiana Lottery for getting the scoop on these signs faster than you can say Powerball!