Why is this a crime?

[Calzone Lord]

Yeah -- losing $1.5 million gambling isn't easy.

I suppose he could say that he wanted to turn that $1.5 million into $2.5 million -- and give them back their money and keep the profit for himself.

I would bury it in various places throughout remote corners of my parents properties and say 'Sorry fellas, I gambled it all away'

A nice looking young white man with a good lawyer and no criminal record would have got virtually no prison time.