There’s a new twist to the Jacksonville Jaguars theft story that led to so many jokes Wednesday, only this part isn’t quite as funny.

The attorney for Amit Patel, the former Jaguars employee who was fired for allegedly stealing more than $22 million from the team through a virtual credit card program, said his client suffers from a “serious gambling addiction,” in a telephone interview with The Athletic.

“It started with a little bit and, as these things usually do, spiraled wildly out of control,” Alex King said Thursday. He said Patel plans to plead guilty to the two federal charges he’s facing — wire fraud and illegal monetary transaction.

According to the attorney, Patel bet on football and daily fantasy sports, and he fraudulently obtained money from the company’s VCC program to subsidize his losses. Approximately 99 percent of funds from the program were gambling losses, King said, almost all occurring on FanDuel and DraftKings. He said he did not know if Patel bet on the Jaguars.