One of the most spectacular flameouts in Will County politics is still casting sparks, as former County Coroner Robert Tezak — the Joliet millionaire who made the card game Uno an international sensation — again faces prison time in a 1987 arson.

Federal prosecutors want Tezak locked up for not making a good-faith effort to pay off $1.2 million in fines and restitution that came along with his 12-year prison sentence for setting fire to his Crest Hill bowling alley and threatening a government witness.

Prosecutors say Tezak lives in a posh golf course community in Arizona, drives luxury cars, coordinates multimillion-dollar real estate deals and has racked up $380,000 in gambling winnings while telling his probation officers he earns just $200 per month.

Tezak, who is representing himself because he says he has no money for attorneys, was set to report to prison last week, until he won a one-week extension from U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly. Barring a ruling from Kennelly that allows him to remain free while his appeal is pending, Tezak is scheduled to report Thursday to the Bureau of Prisons for a four-month stay.

"This is your taxpayer dollars at work. This thing, in 1987 it happened. I went to jail in 1992," Tezak said. "I've been out for 10 years. I've kept my nose clean."

Tezak, who sold Uno to Mattel for a reported $40 million shortly before he was indicted in 1992, has dutifully paid $50 each month toward his fines and restitution since his release from federal prison in 2002, court records state. That sum is all he can afford, he said, as an ex-convict who clears just $189 per monthly paycheck working for the family business and as caregiver for his nonagenarian parents in Arizona.

The Uno millions, and his $9 million net worth at the time he was sentenced in 1994, have long since been drained by lawyers' fees and a series of bankruptcies, Tezak said.

Shortly before his probation expired in 2011, federal officials reported to the court that Tezak lived in swank condos, which rent for $5,000 to $10,000 per week and are owned by a family corporation, and has for years been taking "business trips" to casinos, steakhouses, the Super Bowl and NASCAR events.

In a deposition with federal prosecutors in 2011 and in a phone interview last week with the Tribune as he awaited the judge's ruling at his home in Mesa, Ariz., Tezak didn't deny that he lives comfortably despite being underpaid as an officer in his family real estate business.

"My family has money. I don't. That's what they don't understand," he said.

When the federal prosecutor at that deposition asked to see Tezak's wallet, it held $300 in cash as well as debit cards in the name of Tezak, his mother, his father and Tezak Investment Corp., court records show.

Tezak also noted that he often drove a Mercedes registered to his 90-year-old mother, though the federal prosecutor who questioned him noted the car had license plates that read "MR UNO."

"OK, so your mom's car has Mr. Uno vanity plates?" Assistant U.S. Attorney Melissa Childs asked during the 2011 deposition.

"Sure," Tezak replied. "Why not?"

But even the lifestyle described by prosecutors is a considerable decline from the one Tezak enjoyed for nearly two decades as one of the wealthiest and most powerful political players in Illinois.

Tezak became coroner in 1976 at the age of 28, five years after he bought the rights to Uno from an Ohio barber for $50,000. By 1990, Tezak's International Games had sold 75 million decks of the colorful cards, which were available in 25 countries.

The game made him millions, which he poured into local politics and real estate deals, even an Indy Car team that supported Indianapolis 500 winner Arie Luyendyk.

He wore open collars with his suits and gold jewelry and threw wild parties with prostitutes and cocaine, according to witness testimony in court, and he put several hundred thousand dollars into political campaigns in an era when $10,000 was often enough to win an election in Will County. He even bought the local AM radio station WJOL. He once said he was weighing a run as the GOP candidate for lieutenant governor.

His downfall was as tawdry as his ascent was meteoric. He was ordered held in jail for threatening to kill a government witness, his son's girlfriend, who told federal authorities that she regularly did cocaine with the elder Tezak during the course of a lengthy romantic relationship that began when she was a teenager.

Witnesses testified to wretched, 1980s-style excesses. His son, who learned of Tezak's affair with his girlfriend only after his father was indicted, testified that the elder Tezak started each morning with a snort of cocaine. Others described wild parties at an island "compound" on the DuPage River.

In 1987, two buildings Tezak owned burned down, a money-losing Crest Hill bowling alley and a downtown Joliet building that housed a development agency that was the target of a federal investigation of Will County GOP players. Tezak eventually pleaded guilty to one count of arson for the bowling alley fire and to making death threats to his son's girlfriend after learning she planned to testify against him.

Tezak said he is being unfairly targeted by prosecutors, noting that after his federal prison time was done, he was sentenced to another three years in state prison for the arson at the Joliet building.

Federal prosecutors dropped charges connected to that fire as part of Tezak's plea deal in 1992, but Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow took the rare step of charging him for the building fire, and used Tezak's confession that was part of his federal plea deal as evidence.

DePaul University Law School professor Leonard Cavise said the state charges were rare, and that while Tezak may not be able to beat the probation violation sentence, he might gain a few cards to play after his release.

"People hide money. The government gets stuck on restitution payments all the time," Cavise said. "It may be that if he comes out, he will still owe this money. But if the government moves to take assets, he can say: 'Hey, I already did prison time for this, judge. How much more can they do to me to collect?'"

Tezak last year filed bankruptcy — his third since his indictment in 1992 — attempting to write off $214,000 in debts, including 17 credit cards with balances ranging from $53,000 to a few hundred dollars, and unknown liabilities from several unsettled lawsuits from real estate partners.