Billy Walters was well-known in the sports gambling realm for years before being busted for securities fraud. He hadn’t been satisfied with the money he was warning as a gambler and, in 2017, was shipped off to prison after being found guilty of insider trading linked to Dean Foods that put $32 million in his pocket. Walters, often lucky in gambling, got lucky in front of the judge, receiving a sentence of only five years when he could have been locked up for 20 years. He’s now gotten lucky once again, with outgoing President of the U.S. (POTUS) Trump commuting the remainder of his five-year sentence.

Walters, who has previously been called a “cheater” and a “criminal” by at least one judge, may have been playing the odds when he tried to find support from Trump. U.S. presidents leaving office will often grant a number of pardons and commutations and Walters had reportedly reached out to former Trump attorney John Dowd ahead of Trump’s exit to see if he could lend a hand. Dowd had been working for Walters for several years, according to the New York Times, but it isn’t clear in what capacity. Dowd was reportedly paid “tens of thousands of dollars” in representing Walters since first taking him on as a client in 2018.

The goal was for Walters to receive a full pardon from Trump, but that didn’t happen. A pardon signed by POTUS is a big deal and something worn like a badge of honor. Any pardon essentially dismisses all charges against the individual and strikes the conviction from his or her record, and a POTUS-signed pardon means the person received extra special treatment.

However, despite all efforts, Walters was only given a commutation by Trump. This results in the remainder of a prison sentence being waived; however, unlike a pardon, it doesn’t remove the conviction from the permanent record of the individual. Still, Walters will take what he can get.