a checkbook. She only reluctantly agreed to move with him to Las Vegas for a second time in 1994, warning him that it was his last chance. His father and other family members questioned the move, knowing that his real motivation was to gamble legally. Kutner also had doubts, knowing about Schlichter's penchant for gambling. Soon after they arrived in Las Vegas, he took a box of old checks from her sister and used them to get money to gamble. He lost it all, and when it was apparent he couldn't pay it back, the bank reported him to the FBI. Mitzi lost patience with him and took her two daughters back to Indiana. After losing hundreds of thousands of dollars, along with virtually all he owned, he went back to Indiana as well in hopes of reconciling with Mitzi. Soon afterward, in October, he was charged with fraud for passing $175,000 in bad checks at Las Vegas casinos, many of which he'd stolen from Kutner. He'd passed most of the checks at Treasure Island. When he pleaded guilty, federal prosecutors were initially willing to offer a deal that would let him self-report to a federal prison camp for a sentence of 15 months. However, when prosecutors learned that he'd been passing bad checks in Indiana as well, they persuaded a judge to remand him to custody. In January 1995, he was sentenced to two years in prison. Prosecutors later discovered Schlichter had passed $500,000 in bad checks in Indiana, Nevada, and his native Ohio. He was released in April 1996 after serving 16 months, only to be arrested again that fall for stealing checks from his employer and using them to get $8,500 to gamble. This time, he was sentenced to eight years in federal prison. Mitzi formally divorced him soon afterward, in 1998. He was released on probation in 1999 after serving 13 months. Schlichter returned home to Bloomingburg, where he told friends that he still had connections to get prime tickets for Buckeye football games. He told others that if they fronted him the money to buy the tickets, he would share the profits, but instead used the money to gamble. He ultimately stole $500,000 from a dozen individuals—including his father—before he was arrested, pled guilty and sentenced to five years in prison. Between 1995 and 2006, Schlichter served the equivalent of 10 years in 44 different