"tax on the stupid"

No quick fix for nation's gambling addiction

Herald View

Wednesday 1 January 2014

We've all said it.

We've all said it.

       

When I win the lottery ... Of course, most of us know that winning the lottery is about as likely as being hit by lightning. But that doesn't stop us fantasising about it, especially at this time of year when budgets have been squeezed tight by Christmas. The government makes a lot of amount of money from this "tax on the stupid" as it has been called. Britain's success at the Olympic Games was largely built on lottery cash.

The downside is that, since the National Lottery was first established in 1994, gambling has become part of the fabric of everyday life. And more and more of us are becoming addicted to it. The Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, Lorna Hood, has warned in her New Year message that this is because gambling is now "cool and normalised" - the stigma has gone.

Along with pay-day loans, betting is making a significant contribution to the debt crisis faced by thousands of Scottish families.

According to the Scottish Health Survey published earlier this year, 70% of Scots have gambled in the past year. That's three million people, and the UK Gambling Commission estimate that 31,000 of them are addicted - not far short of the number of hard drug addicts in Scotland.

The problem has become significantly worse following the deregulation of gambling in 2005, which allowed online gaming companies to advertise on the UK media. Online gambling is now worth nearly £2 billion a year in the UK. The UK gambling industry as a whole enjoyed a jackpot yield of £6.3bn last year, up 7%.

Gambling is no respecter of age or social class. Online gambling is particularly attractive to middle-class women since it can be carried out discretely in the home and doesn't involve a trip to the bookmaker or casino.

But the crack cocaine of gambling are the fixed odds betting terminals (FOBTs) that have sprung up in bookmakers across Scotland, especially in areas of social deprivation. FOTBs allow people to bet up to £100 every 20 seconds, and Scottish bookies made £122 million profit from them last year alone. Gambling addiction charities are calling for the stakes to be limited to £2 in these machines, and we believe that this should be introduced as a matter of urgency. Labour has now promised to review high stakes betting machines if it wins the next election.

But it is time also to review the social cost as a whole. Gambling is reserved to Westminster and Holyrood has only limited powers to intervene. Nevertheless, we hope that in 2014 the Scottish Government will look closely at the licensing of betting establishments to see if something can be done to curb the growth of predatory gambling.

At the very least it should continue to lobby the UK government to stem the growth of fixed odds betting - a sure sign of a gambling industry that is out of control.


http://www.heraldscotland.com/comment/herald-view/no-quick-fix-for-nations-gambling-addiction.23038933

 

To prison for 33 year old Gambling Addict who Embezzled

Bank manager embezzled £122,000 from customers for gambling habit

STV 17 April 2013 11:53 BST

HBOS: Jennings embezzled the cash while managing the Partick branch.

A bank manager pocketed more than £122,000 from customers to fund his gambling habit.

Paul Jennings transferred the money from 13 customers, many of whom were elderly, as their accounts had been dormant.

The 33-year-old’s crime was discovered when two customers came forward after they noticed their money was missing.

Jennings previously pled guilty at Glasgow Sheriff Court to embezzling £122,502 between July 2008 and April 2011 at the Halifax Bank of Scotland in Dumbarton Road, Partick.

He was jailed for two years and 11 months by Sheriff John Baird on Wednesday.
Customer manager Jennings, from Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire, also admitted a charge of failing to turn up to an earlier court appearance.

Sheriff John Baird told him: "You targeted deliberately the accounts of people you knew to be elderly and vulnerable."

The court heard Jennings transferred money out of the different accounts over the three year period to use for his gambling addiction.

One customer came forward when they noticed money was missing and Jennings initially denied any involvement despite his initials being on the withdrawal slip, but the full extent of his crime was not discovered.

However, when another customer came forward, further investigations were made.
Defence lawyer Tom Williamson said that after joining the bank in 2003, Jennings moved to the Dumbarton Road branch in 2006.

Mr Williamson added: "After that he developed a chronic gambling addiction. He became aware he could move money from client accounts which had been dormant and he did that for 13 accounts in total.

"He thought that the fact that their accounts were dormant would mean he would not be detected."
Mr Williamson told the court that the money was used to fund his gambling and not a lavish lifestyle.

http://news.stv.tv/scotland/221775-hbos-manager-paul-jennings-embezzled-122000-for-gambling-habit/

 

“Gambling will take away your dreams and aspirations,”....

Ex-Hearts player Kevin Twaddle tells of gambling addiction
          

Kevin Twaddle has lifted the lid on his gambling addiction. Picture: Neil Hanna

Published on Tuesday 5 March 2013 12:00
ON the pitch, the young Kevin Twaddle had the potential and skill to be one of the country’s best football talents.

A clever winger whose professional career took him from St Johnstone to Raith Rovers, Morton to Motherwell and eventually his beloved Hearts, he had the world – and the ball – at his feet.
But off the pitch and behind the thousands of pounds a week salary, tens of thousands in signing on fees and his glam footballer’s lifestyle, Twaddle was in the grip of an overwhelming force that would drive him to lie, cheat and callously steal from the very people he loved.

For years he was the bookies’ best friend, squandering his salary along with any other cash he could get his hands on, sometimes betting tens of thousands of pounds in a single day.

So intense was his gambling obsession that he admits if the chance to win a bet by breaking the rules of the game had come up, he’d have done it.

“There’s no doubt that if I was playing now, I’d try,” he says, reflecting on how his compulsive gambling drove him to behaviour that now leaves him deeply ashamed. “I’d probably have kicked the ball out of the park to win a bet.

“These days you can get odds for anything, the first ball out of the park, who will be sent off – I wasn’t a dirty player, but I’d have got myself sent off for that. If I could have fixed games, I would have.”

It’s a startling comment from a former professional. But according to Twaddle, 42, gambling drove him to irrational behaviour – including stealing money from his dying grandmother – as he blundered through a fog of bookies, casinos, bets and deceit.

Today it’s nearly seven years since his last bet and Twaddle is his own harshest critic. There’s huge guilt over how he treated friends and loved ones, and bitterness at a football career thrown away. Behind him is a trail of wrecked relationships and hurtful behaviour that he’s finally come to appreciate was his own fault.

Certainly it’s a stark vision of what damage gambling can do. And, as startling new figures suggest, he’s not alone.

Recently details emerged of the staggering sums of money pumped into bookies’ fixed odds gaming machines – £129 million a year in Leith and north Edinburgh alone – hinting that many may be in the grip of a new wave of gambling fever.

The figures aren’t much better for the constituency area of Edinburgh East – which covers Craigmillar, Duddingston, Meadowbank and Portobello. Punters there spend around £98m a year, according to the Campaign for Fairer Gambling.

Add in 24-hour internet gambling that often offers free credit to get players started, mobile phone casino apps that accept real money bets, Facebook bingo apps that play with cash, slot machines that accept £100 credit card bets for a single spin, and all-day bookies, having a flutter has never been easier.

It’s why Twaddle, who fought through his addiction with help from Gamblers Anonymous Scotland (GA), says its meetings are busier than ever, sometimes with young men and increasing numbers of women who are still in their teens.

“These gambling machines, they’re like crack cocaine,” Twaddle sighs. “So many people are playing them, yet often they don’t have jobs. Where do they get the money from to fund their addiction? Well, I would have done anything to keep gambling. I took money from people knowing they would never ever get it back. I mixed with people I shouldn’t have.

“When you’re an addict, it doesn’t matter where you get the money from.”

Indeed, last year gambler Yiuman Poon appeared in court after stealing £700,000 from the Little Chef in Dreghorn Link where he worked to feed his habit. Last week, Colinton Mains post office worker Nadeem Amjid, 26, was jailed for 20 months after stealing more than £33,000 from an elderly customer to feed his gambling.

While they are extreme cases, Twaddle points out gambling is everywhere. “Addiction is a horrible thing, it makes ordinary people do things they wouldn’t normally do.

“And it’s hard trying to stop because every time you switch on television during the day there’s another advert for online bingo. Try to watch sport on television and Ray Winstone keeps popping up telling you to have a bet.

“People are in bookies when there’s not even any racing on. Why? Because they are pumping money into gaming machines. I’d have been playing them, too, if they’d been around when I was gambling because sometimes the horse takes too long to run around the track.”

He talks with searing honesty while sitting in the living room of his £200,000 semi-detached home in Brunstane. It’s a pleasant home, he and wife Jac have only been in a few months, and while it’s perfectly appealing it doesn’t scream the kind of luxury that might be expected from an ex-footballer whose playing days should have set him up for life.

Instead, having fluttered away his and other people’s cash, he ended up back living in his parents’ Danderhall home, football career over, gambling out of control, and suicidal thoughts swirling around his head.

“I used to go to casinos, it was red carpet treatment,” he remembers. “I thought at the time ‘Wow, look at me, big man’,” he reflects. “Now I look back and think – ‘what an arse’.”

He was just 13 when he helped pick a few teams for his dad’s coupon. It started as harmless fun, even better when the coupon came good and he ended up £84 better off. But it wasn’t the money that fuelled his
obsession, it was the buzz.

“Ask most people who struggle with gambling addiction, you could fill the room with £50 notes but it’s not that they really want,” he explains. “The money is not important.”

As a teenager, he got other people to place bets for him, funding his habit with a newspaper round and playground games of cards. As an apprentice painter, he’d collect his workmate’s lunch money, set off for the chip shop only to blow it all at the bookies on the way.

By the time he signed for St Johnstone, the 23-year-old was out of control – at one point betting £12,000 on a match he was playing in against Stenhousemuir only to lose the lot.

Twaddle first told of his gambling hell in a startlingly honest book, Life on the Line: How to Lose a Million which was published late last year.

Writing it lay personal demons to rest, but opened up painful wounds for loved ones who’d been unaware of how far he’d fallen, so clever was his web of lies and deceit.

“I robbed my mum, watched my nana die and stole every penny she had,” he admits. “I was looking at going to jail for fraud only for my dad to bail me out. People say ‘wow, we never saw you as that person’, but I was and I feel terrible for the upset that I’ve caused.

“People would say ‘what are you doing?’ but you live in a bubble and you have to reach a place you’ve never been before and instead of blaming someone else, you have to accept what you’ve done. I was delusional.”

His first meeting at GA left him shaking and terrified. It was a further six months before he felt in control of his addiction.

Today Twaddle runs his own
painter and decorator business and fills the void left by decades of gambling by concentrating on his flourishing career as a pool player – he’s now a Scottish internationalist.

“Gambling will take away your dreams and aspirations,” he adds. “It took away mine.

“My football career should have gone a lot further but I was too busy going to the bookies. It’s not the money, it’s the time with my family, watching kids grow up ... that’s what I lost. You can’t get the time back. The money is actually pretty much immaterial.

“Now I try to be a better husband, dad and son every single day. I work hard at being a better person.”
KYLE JOINS INITIATIVE TO COMBAT GROWING PROBLEM
Former Hearts player Kevin Twaddle has been working alongside the players’ organisation PFA Scotland, taking its gambling awareness project to players in the dressing rooms.

He says there are players today who are in the grip of the same problems he faced as a professional.

“The amount of people that have come forward to get help since the awareness project began is incredible. There are high-profile people in football struggling with gambling.”

Several high-profile players have revealed the extent of their gambling problems. Last month, former Liverpool and Germany midfielder Dietmar Hamann said he became hooked after his marriage collapsed, at one stage losing £200,000 in a single night.

In January, Ipswich Town’s Michael Chopra and ex-Manchester United player Mark Wilson were given 10-year bans from betting on racing after gambling on horses to lose. Doncaster’s James Coppinger was banned for three years for breaching racing’s rules.

Dominic Matteo, the former Leeds United defender, told how he blew £100,000 betting on a horse. And former West Ham player Matthew Etherington admitted to blowing £1.5m on gambling.

Meanwhile, England stars Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen reportedly fell out over a £700,000 bet, and Scotland player Colin Hendry ended up bankrupt over gambling debts.

In 2009, former Hearts player Kevin Kyle admitted he was addicted to gambling.

Gambling in the game is a global problem. Last week, Fifa banned players and officials in Italy and South Korea over match fixing, while Europol is currently investigating claims that hundreds of games at top level of the sport, including World Cup qualifiers, have been rigged.

http://www.scotsman.com/edinburgh-evening-news/features/ex-hearts-player-kevin-twaddle-tells-of-gambling-addiction-1-2820656

Gambling addiction saw me steal from my dying nana..

Gambling addiction saw me steal from my dying nana.. but I would sink further still, admits Kevin Twaddle

FORMER SPL football star Kevin Twaddle has opened his heart on the devastating gambling addiction which cost him £1million.

 

I LOVED my nana, Annie Barker, to bits. I really did.

Her health was failing when I was at Motherwell and I went to see her every single day.

My mum used to say what a great laddie I was because it looked like I was doing so much for my nana.

Kevin Twaddle's nana Annie Barker, right

She didn’t know I’d had a key cut for a box in my nan’s living room where she kept all her money.

She didn’t know I was stealing her life savings.

I didn’t go into the box and take all the money in one swoop but gradually, over the months, I took out small amounts until there was next to nothing left.

I don’t know how much money I actually stole from her. I would hate to know what the exact figure was. It was a substantial amount and, at a guess, I would say it would have been in excess of £10,000 if I am being totally honest.

What sort of person would do that to their own nana? There are no words that can describe the shame I feel.

I don’t say that for sympathy because, after the way I treated my nana, that is the last thing I should be entitled to.

Football star reveals how he hit rock bottom as he blew £1million on his gambling addiction

Gambling addiction saw me steal from my dying nana.. but I would sink further still, admits Kevin Twaddle

Ex-SPL star Kevin Twaddle: The day I nearly ended it all because of my gambling

The most galling thing is that, if I had just asked my nana for the money, I know she would have happily given it to me but I didn’t want to tell anyone I had a gambling problem.

I watched my nana die and – I have to be honest although I know it might sound cold-hearted and it was – I didn’t even want to go to her funeral.

Not because I didn’t love her or I was unable to cope with the grief but because I had an illness. I was caught up in a gambling frenzy.

To most people who maybe haven’t had a betting addiction, it might sound like a load of rubbish, a cock-and-bull story to try to justify my actions but it wasn’t.

I don’t think any sane individual could defend my actions. But when you are a gambling addict, it consumes you and takes over your life without you even knowing. It is hard to explain.

Kevin Twaddle and his wife, Jac

Gambling becomes all-consuming. It becomes the be-all and end-all. You will go to extreme lengths and measures just so you can put on a bet and satisfy your cravings and impulses. I was that sick, although I didn’t even realise it.

My nana died on November 24, 2003. I didn’t want to grieve. The only place I wanted to be was at the bookies. I even left my nana’s funeral early so I could get to the bookmakers for the first horse race of the day.

I look back on that day with nothing but shame and embarrassment. How could I have done that to somebody I was so close to? There can be no excuses, even though I was in such a bad place with gambling.

It had taken over my life and was at the centre of everything I did. Thinking back, I am just relieved I went to the funeral because I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself if I hadn’t gone and probably, back then, it would have been touch and go.

I should have been the first person there because my nana did so much for me and was one of the most caring and loving people I ever met.

I think, at the end, my nana knew about my gambling although, like everybody else, she didn’t know the full extent of it.

I did some horrible things to her but I do genuinely miss her terribly and I do think about her every day.

I just wish she was still here to see me today. I just hope that, if she is looking down on me, maybe she can be proud of the person I am now.

I am very different to the one who waved her farewell from this world.

By then, I had numerous people coming to my parents’ door looking for money, from sheriff officers to some really unscrupulous characters.

The phone was going 24/7, with people looking to threaten me.

My mum and dad didn’t know half the stuff that was going on because most nights I would put their phone on silent to stop it ringing.

The last thing I wanted to do was have them answering the phone and knowing what I had got myself embroiled in.

I was stealing from my mum too. I tore her to pieces with my gambling and what I did to her.

I had my mum over a barrel. She would never tell my dad what I had done because I would blackmail her emotionally. I would say things like: “If you tell dad, I will never speak to you again.” I was out of control.

To be fair to my mum, she didn’t tell my dad until near the end, when I was at the height of my troubles and when things were really bad.

Money was going missing from her bank account left, right and centre and, at that point, it was obvious to everybody that I needed help. Everybody but me.

Kevin Twaddle’s autobiography Life On The Line sells for £11.99 but we can offer Sunday Mail readers copies at the exclusive price of £10 including postage and packaging.
All you have to do is call Black and White Publishing from tomorrow between 10am and 5pm, Monday to Friday, and quote “Kevin Twaddle Book Offer”. Offer ends on Friday, November 16, 2012. Please allow 12 days for delivery.

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/gambling-addiction-saw-me-steal-from-my-dying-1351619

Perth man dragged girlfriend down street after she gambled benefits

Perth man dragged girlfriend down street after she gambled benefits
An man dragged his partner down the street by her hair after hearing she had gambled away both their weekly benefits.


Perth Sheriff Court heard James Sutherland lost his temper when he heard Veronica Herman had withdrawn his weekly benefits from the bank and lost them within minutes in slot machines.

He launched the attack on his gambling addict girlfriend in front of shocked onlookers.

Although Sutherland was placed on probation, Miss Herman's actions were described as "reprehensible" as well.

Depute fiscal Stuart Richardson outlined the circumstances of the November 9 incident, which took place on Crieff Road and McLeod Court in Perth.

He said, "On the day in question, Miss Herman was out and about and had gone to the bank to withdraw some money. She spent it and then met up with Mr Sutherland.

"He found out from her that the money was spent and, for whatever reason, that seemed to cause a conflict. He began shouting and swearing and punching her. He took her by the hair onto the road."

Sutherland pled guilty to breaching the peace by placing onlookers in a state of fear and alarm.

He admitted assaulting Miss Herman, punching her on the head, seizing her by the hair and dragging her along the roadway, while shouting and swearing.

Mr Richardson said, "The police were on the scene very quickly because they were passing by. She was still there and her view at the time was she didn't want to make any complaint.

"The problem was various members of the public nearby witnessed this and they were prepared to involve the police."

Accounts emptied

Sutherland's solicitor, David Holmes, said his client had become enraged because Miss Herman had emptied their bank account of both their benefits to feed her gambling habit.

He said, "It was all their money and was all gambled away, although that doesn't excuse his actions."

Sheriff McCreadie said, "It is reprehensible using money which was meant to be for the family to go gambling with."

He took the unusual step of directly addressing Miss Herman, who was in the public gallery, to ask if she was getting medical help for her gambling addiction. She confirmed she was seeing a doctor for treatment.

Sentencing Sutherland to two years' probation, the sheriff said, "Clearly the gambling, frittering away the family's resources, was a trigger and destabilised the family situation."

Sutherland was ordered to carry out a domestic violence perpetrator's programme as part of his probation.

Son-in-law stole to fund his gambling

Son-in-law stole £10k to fund his gambling

A gambler who stole more than £10,000 from his mother-in-law to fund his addiction, avoided jail with an alternative sentence of 160 hours’ community service.


Twenty-eight-year-old Gary Gillies stole his mother-in-law’s bank card from a house in Wilton Hill, last December, and over a month used it to steal £10,390 at ATMs throughout Scotland.

It was a transaction made while his mother-in-law was in hospital which aroused suspicion.

Gillies, of William Booth Place, St Ninians, Stirling, virtually emptied her account – leaving a balance of £2.99 – after regularly withdrawing sums of £200-£300.

Jedburgh Sheriff Court heard how Gillies’ crime had led to the breakdown of his marriage.

His mother-in-law has been compensated for her loss by the bank.

Procurator fiscal Morag McLintock said the accused’s mother-in-law “had concerns” when she received a statement showing her account some £10,000 short.

She was due to go into hospital and after being discharged contacted the bank when she found her account further reduced.

“A transaction had taken place while she was in hospital and a police investigation led to the accused, who attended at Stirling Police Station and confessed,” explained Ms McLintock.

“He said he had a bad gambling addiction and withdrew £200 or £300 on each occasion until he almost emptied the account, which had £2.99 left in it.”

Gillies told officers: “It was wrong and I am trying to put everything right.”

Solicitor Rory Bannerman, defending, said his client’s relationship had suffered because of his offending.

“He has broken down his family because of this criminal conduct although it is to their credit that he still has the support of his estranged wife and her family, which he appreciates he doesn’t deserve, given what he did.

“During a month he went through £10,000 ensuring that he had money to gamble with,” continued Mr Bannerman.

“It was a vicious circle, as he kept telling himself that if he kept taking it, he would win enough money to pay it back.”

Mr Bannerman said the bank had repaid the victim for her loss.

He said Gillies, who works for a landscape gardener, had sought help for his gambling addiction.

He admitted stealing a bank card from a house in Wilton Hill between December 1-31, 2010, and using it to steal £10,390 at automatic teller machines in Hawick and elsewhere in Scotland, between December 11, 2010 and January 10, 2011.

Sheriff Donald Corke described the offence as a gross breach of trust which could easily have seen Gillies jailed.

Stevie Masterton: I hit rock bottom when gambling addiction

Stevie Masterton: I hit rock bottom when gambling addiction cost me chance to take on Man United
Gordon Parks, Sunday Mail


STEVIE MASTERTON tuned into Crawley Town's fairytale FA Cup tie with Manchester United last season and was forced to confront a nightmare.

It was the moment he accepted his gambling problem had robbed him of the chance to play the Premiership giants at Old Trafford.

What should have been the highlight of his move from Morton to the cash-rich Conference side had been shattered by addiction.

After returning home to Ayrshire this summer, having been released by the side recently promoted into the English League, the midfielder is attempting to rebuild a career ravaged by a self-destructive battle to beat the bookies.

Masterton, 26, said: "I'm not the first player to admit my weaknesses but hopefully this is a fresh start now I have told my own story of what gambling has cost me.

"I'll never forget when I hit rock bottom. It arrived as I sat at home in Crawley watching my club play against Man United at Old Trafford.

"I should have been there on the pitch with my team-mates as I was perfectly fit and part of the squad but just wasn't taken to the game.

"There I was sitting on my couch and realising the chaos my life was in through gambling and it was a heavy price.

"But now my focus is on repairing the damage my addiction has caused."

The former Kilmarnock trainee paid tribute to his partner Rachel and insists the recent arrival of his first child has changed him for the better.

He added: "I've been going to Gamblers Anonymous. That has allowed me to ask myself just what I have been doing with my life during the past 10 years.

"It's time to start asking myself questions and facing up to things.

"There are hundreds of players who have been in my position but there is only a small percentage who do anything about it.

"I don't want to look back on my career and be haunted by the regret that if my attitude was better then I would have done well.

"My partner Rachel gave birth to our son Charlie nine weeks ago and it takes something as life changing as that for the penny to finally drop. It's about providing for other people now. My life isn't just all about me.

"I can't allow myself to be selfish any more. My life off the park has been the biggest cause of where I am now. I've been a daft wee boy. But being a father has changed me."

Despite seeking out help for his problems in the early days of his move south, Masterton insists his desperate pleas fell on deaf ears.

He said: "I've been trying to get off the betting for about two years now. I went in to see the Crawley manager Steve Evans to try to tell him that I was struggling.

"I had suffered a relapse when I moved to England and I decided to confide in him. So I walked into his office to tell him.

"From that moment I felt as though he held it against me and that was the end of my career with the club. I was shipped out on loan to Eastbourne Borough.

"If I had been in a better mindset I could have made a success of the move down south as it was a massive chance for me.

"The manager will say he tried to help me to a certain degree but as soon as he was aware there were weaknesses in my mentality he drove me into the ground at a time when I was looking for support."

The prospects of getting back on track in Scotland are bleaker than ever with a record amount of players out of work but Masterton believes whoever takes a chance on him will get the benefit of a player clear of the baggage of his past.

He said: "I have been clear of the gambling for a while now.

"I believe I have a lot to offer and I'm willing to play for peanuts to show that.

"I'm in much better shape in every aspect of my life. I've lost loads of weight through working on my own and given myself a head start by going on runs and doing gym work."

Gambling within the football profession remains an almost taboo subject despite several high-profile stars attempting to raise the issue through their own experiences.

But Masterton is refusing to hide away from a problem which sees many suffering in silence.

He said: "Gambling is a problem and Hearts striker Kevin Kyle is someone I know and he has gone out of his way to highlight his experiences of the addiction. I used to travel through to training at Morton with Allan Jenkins who is Kevin's mate and he used to phone him most mornings.

"Kevin used to provide gambling tale after gambling tale for us in the car. There is even a 34-year-old ex-professional player who attends the GA meetings.

"He is still living in the past and living with regrets and I don't want to be in that position when I'm 34.

"The gambling is the biggest factor I want to shed from my life and I want to stay in Scotland and play again.

"A big move to England isn't of interest to me. I may yet have the chance to earn big money but it could lead to going down the same path and I'd end up losing it all."