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One time Ohio State University football star Art Schlichter has been sentenced to 10 years, seven months in prison for fleecing more than 50 people out of millions of dollars in a sports-ticket scheme. Schlichter, 52, was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $2.2 million.
The former starting quarterback from 1978 to 1981 plead guilty last October and was placed on house arrest but he was later ordered to go to prison after testing positive for cocaine use.
U.S. District Court Judge Michael H. Watson handed down the sentence this past week.
"You have had untold generosity shown to you and you've repaid it with lies and thieving," the judge said. "You even victimized your own mother."
Schlichter was also being held on a first-degree felony charge of theft, accused of swindling a Dublin, Ohio widow out of more than $1million to fuel his gambling habit.
Schlichter has long blamed gambling addiction for most of his problems throughout adult life.
“I'm embarrassed that I have hurt anyone, and I would give anything to make it right," he said last year.
- Gilbert Horowitz, Gambling911.com
