It would be easy to get frustrated by various people and organisations that probabaly havn't turned out to support us as much as we thought they would, if fact, it can seem that we have been let down a bit by certain people, but its a tough time at the moment, so everything that is negative is also magnified, this is particulary getting to some of the DTD people that are really pushing that extra mile for me every day, but, I can't be bothered with this sort of thing at the moment, I'll deal with all these loose ends if we are successful on the 24th. I know, and always have known, who I can rely on, nothing as changed, and nothing surprises me, the main thing is to focus on my preparations for the hearing, get that out of the way, and then worry about details.
What is amazing is the attitude of some of the poker community, it is common knowledge that DTD is in a financial crisis, I have never hidden that, yet we get call after call, email after email, asking for money and people have the front to get the hump if we say no....."can you put me into this comp, I'll wear a dtd cap for £5k, can you sponsor this tournament, are you interested in this deal, why the hell not? blah blah". These people have no regard for our situation, and are just thinking of themselves and what they can get out of us, Nick deals with this rubbish everyday, and I know he must be finding it hard to be polite sometimes.
Rebecca gave me yet another big bill from our lawyers the other day demanding immediate payment, my first reaction was to express my disapointment that they of all people should know what a costly decision the adjournment was, and that they should share in this pain (as our lawyers), but after reflecting on this, I paid it straight away, as the last thing we need is to turn up at the hearing without any legal representation. Thats what it feels like at the moment, 99% of people just want to take their piece of DTD, maybe they are worried that there is not much "cake" left, and they have to get "to the table first" before all of the crumbs are gone.
As we get closer to the hearing, its hard not to start thinking of what I will do if we lose. "Losing" is either being adjourned again or failing to get the licence, I know my legal team will advise me to appeal, but I'm not sure if I want to get into another long battle. DTD is not my core business, and I want to sort things out one way or another in 2008. DTD may be in a financial crisis, but Rob Yong is in good financial shape without DTD round his neck, after ploughing over £4m into this venture, I know I could have a lot more fun in 2008 spending £100k playing a few EPT's than putting a further £1m into this venture, hey, maybe Grovsvenor might lift my ban if we lose and I can play a few GUPT's.
I was in London yesterday, and someone asked me how it feels to lose so much money, I replied, "it doesn't really hurt, its just a bit annoying waiting for a result". He couldn't understand why I was was not jumping off a cliff, like some stockbroker after his share portfolio has crashed. I was thinking about this on the train on the way back, why I have a total disregard for my money, and I realised that its only like when I used to play fruit machines when I was 12........I would take £2.20 to town, £2 to play the fruit machines with, and 20p for bus fare there and back from the arcade, I would get on the bus, full of hope, end up losing every penny in my pocket in the arcade, and walking home from town, the walk back was not actually that bad, as I would normally think of some really good ideas to make back what I had lost that day. What I'm trying to say, if DTD loses the case, I'll come up with something else to make the money back on the way home from the court....as I'll be walking home of course
One good thing about all of this, is that I have not lost anyone else's money on DTD, I'm so glad I refused to accept money from any private investors and never asked the bank, imagine how much people would be on my back now, one person had offered to invest £500,000 of their own savings in DTD, wow, he would be really unhappy now lol That's the problem with using other peoples money - they expect a massive return on a "sure thing", and if you use the bank's money, they can "wind you up" when they start to get nervous, banks don't have "balls of steel", their balls are made of "egg shells", one little sqeeze, and they crack into little pieces.
This post may seem a bit negative, I seem to assuming that I have "done my money", but the more I work on this case, and the more I put myself in the casino objectors' position, the more I like their chances. Over the last few weeks I have been imagining I am a Barristor for Gala, what would my angles be, how can I win, how can I make the magistrates see my point of view, and I am developing a stronger case for them to win as each day goes by............not on the basis of "demand for DTD", but on how the casino laws could be interpreted by the court, and how this could be used to their advantage. In simple terms, I believe that the true odds of winning are now down to 50:50, even money, right down the middle, based on these "legal" edges that I have found that could help the objectors cases, if they use them.
Anyway, we keep plugging away, and can only do our best in adversity, Cheer Rob
