@cos
It wasn't Leon's idea, rob said "if you feel bad then how about offering x as a goodwill gesture" which Matt did. According to Rob, Leon was ok to pay the 3m but also accepted Matts offer which seems reasonable.
Everything is reasonable up to the point of the backers cancelling the deal then both sides acted poorly in my view.
I went with a friend of mine to look at a plastering job on a newly built house. We had the keys and we let ourselves in.
There were no furnishings what so ever, but the central heating was on, (presumably to dry out the walls).
On the floor of what was going to become the kitchen there was an electric kettle plugged into a wall socket, a jar of coffee, a bag of sugar and a dirty pack of playing cards.
We knew nothing about poker back then but my friend, a truly degen gambler, suggested a game of three card. I refused.
Firstly, I didn't have much money to spare, secondly, he was the jammiest bastard that ever broke bread, and thirdly, but not leastly, I knew my tea would be ready at home and we were having lamb chops and onion gravy.
Undeterred, he asked me if I had seen Bruce Forsyth's new show, Play Your Cards Right. I said I had and without further ado he flipped the first card in the deck over and said, "For a quid, is the next one higher or lower?"
Fast forward 5 hours and I was £1500 up. I was sitting on a concrete floor, drinking coffee from a disgusting cup and wondering..
A- If I was ever going to be able to walk properly again, B- What Mrs Red would have done with my lamb chops, and C- How the Hell I was going to get out of there with my £1500 intact, (or with any money at all for that matter.
I offered him a deal. Quit now and I would knock £500 off the bill. I know this sounds daft but I would still be walking out with £1000, which was a shit load of money in 1980.
He didn't want to quit, so I told him how it would have to be. If he won back the £1500, I only had £200 more that I could lose to him, if, on the other hand he ended up losing, he wouldn't get a penny discount. He said that was fine so we carried on.
We played until almost dawn and he ran so bad, he was going lower than a Q and hitting a K, higher than a 3 and hitting a 2 etc, it was so bad that he agonising over cards like 5 or 6 saying, "I should say higher but I know it will be lower".
When we finally packed in, we were literally unable to walk because we had been sitting on the concrete for so long. On the + side I was £2100 up. On the - side I was expecting Mrs Red to file for divorce. (Remember there were no phones back then, she had no idea where I was)
The next day, I went around to his gaff to get paid as agreed. Normally at this point, once the reddies were in my hand I would give a small % in "Luck money" back as a gesture of good will and a thank you for prompt payment. (This only applies to my traveller friends because it's the done thing and it works both ways) This time though, I told him I was keeping the lot because of our agreement.
He whined and wheedled and begged and called me all the names under the sun and swore he would never speak to me again.
Two weeks later he came to see me and apologised for making a fuss. He said he was bang out of order. I apologised too. I had been thinking that I should never have put myself in a position where I would feel forced to refuse to give him his discount.
I offered him £200, he wouldn't accept it and in the end we used it to take both of our our families for a day out at Alton Towers.
We are still good friends, he's a millionaire now and still a jammy bastard. I don't think I've ever won a bet from him since.
The last time we met he won £400 from me when we played a game using the numbers on the registration plates of passing cars as poker hands.
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