Al has a gentle face. He has a face of soft creases and pale-blue eyes. He looks older than his 52 years.

Al used to steal money from his daughter. He used to take money from his wife's purse. Once he stole $4,500 from a charity to which he belonged. He begged, borrowed and lifted every cent he could lay his hands on, and then bet it and lost it.

''I'd go through $90 a day, just on bingo,'' he recalls, in a sad, quiet voice. ''It was nothing to put down $75 on lottery tickets.''