We have a nominee for 2010 Son of the Year: His name is Richard Stone and he is charged with 22 counts of theft and 21 counts of criminal treatments. The victim of all 43 alleged crimes? His mother.

Stone, a resident of Portland, Oregon, took control of his mother’s finances in 2006 after she was diagnosed with dementia and moved to an assisted living home. Nothing is unusual about that. Anyone diagnosed with dementia usually either gives up control of their finances completely or has to have a designated family member co-sign any financial transaction. What is abnormal, or at least I hope, it what happened next.

According to the district attorney, Stone decided to use his mother’s finances for something much more fun and interesting than paying her medical bills. He took them to casinos and gambled with it instead. With no one there to pay for her thousands of dollars in medical bills, the state of Oregon picked up the tab. That means if you are reading this and live in Oregon, you paid for the medical bills of this man’s mother so he could have some fun at a casino.

Yup, that’s right, and it gets worse. According to the DA, Stone sold his mother’s home and received a check for more than $120,000. Somehow, though, it slipped his mind to report that sale. You see, if the state knew about it, they would have said something along the line of “Hey, it looks like you can afford to pay her bills instead of the taxpayers.” But he didn’t report the sale because that meant more gambling money. Woo hoo!

Stone pleaded not guilty yesterday to the charges and will appear in court next week. Of course we here at Gambling Review view the scumbag as innocent until proven guilty. That’s why I used words like “allegedly,” because I would hate to slander the cretin.

There are a number of points to make here, such as not gambling with someone else’s money, not gambling with money you can’t afford to lose, not committing crimes and whatnot, but I think all of that goes without saying. Instead, I will just say this:

If I remember to (which is a big if), I will give out both a Man of the Year (or Woman) and a Son of the Year (or Daughter) at the end of 2010. You can bet that Richard Stone is currently in consideration for both awards.

According to the AFP, some genius in India faked his kidnapping because he needed money for a gambling trip. Pawan Verma, a 22-year-old in New Delhi, staged his own kidnapping and demanded $40,000 from his father so he could make a trip to Macau, where he wanted to celebrate New Year’s Eve with his girlfriend with a night of partying, gambling and other excesses.

Apparently, Verma doesn’t have enough spare time in his life to watch any of the American movies where someone stages a kidnapping in order to get some money. Spoiler alert: It never ends well! When you get out of jail, though, Mr. Verma, I would suggest watching Fargo. It’s the best of the fake-kidnapping movies.

The case against Verma is pretty good. What makes them think he staged the kidnapping? Well, the authorities were tipped off when Verma was seen at the drop site picking up the random money…Yes, folks. This rocket scientist actually went to the drop himself instead of sending someone else and somehow didn’t expect to be recognized. He thought his dad would just drop off $40,000 without having anyone watching? I imagine it went down something like this:

Verma’s father: Look, there’s somebody heading over to the duffle bag now!

Cops: Okay, team. Get ready to move in.

Verma’s father: What the f–? It’s Pawan!

Cops: What?

Verma’s father: That’s my son! I can’t believe it! He’s okay!

Cops: Are you sure it’s him? It can’t be someone else?

Verma’s father: Are you saying we all look the same? No, it’s him; I know it. Thank God…Wait, he’s taking the money. He’s walking away…That son of a—

Verma, not surprisingly, was arrested. The authorities found it hard to believe that he had a legitimate reason for picking up the ransom money when he was supposed to be kidnapped at that time. A police officer in New Delhi told the press that Verma wanted to treat his girlfriend for New Year’s. He “wanted to fulfill her wish but was not able to bear the expenses.”

Maybe he should have just come clean. It’s always tough when you have to tell your girlfriend you can’t afford something, but I think that’s a little less damaging to the relationship than getting arrested for faking your own kidnapping. Add to that the fact that, if he needed to conduct this scheme to afford the gambling trip, this man has no business gambling in the first place! You should never gamble money that you can’t afford to lose, and I think it’s safe to say that if Verma had to con his dad out of $40,000 to hit the casino, he fits in the can’t afford to lose category.

A police offer said that if the father wishes, the charges against Verma will be dropped. My opinion: He should go to jail and be banned from ever visiting a casino…and from having kids.