Sailor gains a lot of money in prizes (8)
I believe the answer is:
jackpots
'prizes' is the definition.
(jackpot is a kind of prize)
'sailor gains a lot of money' is the wordplay.
'sailor' becomes 'jack' (informal term for a sailor).
'gains' says to put letters next to each other.
'a lot of money' becomes 'pots' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'jack'+'pots'='JACKPOTS'
'in' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for jackpots that I've seen before include "Top prizes from one-arm bandits" , "Large accumulated cash prizes" .)