In what has become something of a running theme for this week's PCG news coverage, the Catholic priest of Pottstown, Pa., has launched a series of mobile games i.e. Candy Crush, Mario Kart Tour, Pokemon Go, various slot machines and hidden object games. , and a cash frenzy.

As reported by the Philadelphia Inquirer (via Kotaku),Pastor Lawrence Kozak was charged by a police officer PA using a credit card tied to St. Thomas More Parish for a spend 4 41,879.83 more than a few years on an addictive game. According to the police affidavit, the disharmony purchase on the church's credit card dates back to 2019, and the situation was first brought to the attention of the police by church officials in 2022.

At that time, Kozak was taken for a chat with the police and told investigators that he had both his personal bank card and parish credit card connected to his iPhone.Kozak said he did not intentionally use parish cards for his in-game purchases, but did so accidentally because he was not a "detail man" Kozak also explained that his purchases were about "power-ups" rather than gambling.

The documents obtained by the police "contain a spreadsheet containing Apple transactions associated with an Apple ID associated with Kozak between 12/30/18 and 06/15/22.""These records show a grand total of 214,265.08 in that four-year transaction, and some have order numbers that match the irregular transactions in the Church's own financial records. Other records show Kozak made payments from his personal bank account toward the Church's credit card balance, totaling 1 to 10,600.

On top of Apple's deal for in-game boosts, other records show that the Amazon account connected to Kozak also used parish funds to purchase fire tablets and children's backpacks that were shipped to Kozak's granddaughter "in a note signed by Uncle Larry."

All of that, no doubt, seemed to have done considerable harm to Church officials who put Kozak on administrative leave in 2022-11. In 2023, Thomas Kletzel, who was replaced by Kozak at Saint Thomas More Parish, told the police that he received a letter from kozak containing a che8,000 cheque for a "parish refund" and along with a handwritten letter, "I am so sorry that I made this mistake that is causing stress for you."

In 2023, the parish's business manager expressed skepticism to the police that Kozak would not know of his purchase on the parish's credit card. Kozak was charged with theft and other related crimes last Thursday and released after paying保釈金250,000 bail.

In an interview with police, Kozak said that regardless of the details of Kozak's personal situation, he is seeking counseling for his fight against video game addiction, a very real and sinister issue.