He's Out: Shohei Ohtani's ex-interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, ran up a $4.5 million debt to bookie Mathew Bowyer.
AFP via Getty ImagesDays before the start of the 2024 baseball season, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 29-year-old phenom Shohei Ohtani, baseball’s highest-paid player, found himself taking high heat in the game’s biggest betting scandal since Pete Rose was banned for life in 1989.
Last week, news broke that Ohtani’s longtime interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, had allegedly stolen $4.5 million in a “massive theft” from the Japanese-born superstar to pay off illegal gambling debts to a California bookie named Mathew Bowyer. (Sports betting is legal in 38 states, but not in California.) Mizuhara was immediately fired by the Dodgers and the IRS and MLB are each investigating the matter.
Bowyer, who lives in a $2.2 million home in San Juan Capistrano, California with his wife and children, is a well-known high roller who spent a lot of time and money at Resorts World in Las Vegas.
It is not clear how big of a book Bowyer ran, but his attorney, Diane Bass, confirms that he was an illegal bookmaker. “He has stopped engaging in this conduct since the raid [on his home] in October,” she says.
Bass adds that she expects her client to be charged with a crime and says she is engaged in pre-indictment negotiations with the federal government. “We have advised the U.S. Attorney that we want to resolve the case,” she says. “[Bowyer] is not going to fight whatever charges they bring.”
“When you run out of cash, you still want to bet the games,” a veteran professional gambler says. “So you look for an illegal bookmaker.”
On Monday, nearly a week after the news broke about Mizuhara’s debts, Ohtani held a press conference—this time, with a new interpreter by his side—and unequivocally denied that he had bet on baseball or any sport, or had “willfully sent money to the bookmaker.”
The scandal is still unfolding as there are many unanswered questions, including how Mizuhara had access to Ohtani’s bank account and why didn’t Ohtani (or the people who manage his money) notice the missing millions? And why, when legal sports gambling is so prevalent in America, would someone still use a bookie?
The answers are worth far more than $4.5 million.
American gamblers spend enormous amounts on legal sports betting. In 2023, the total handle was $120 billion at casinos and through mobile apps such as DraftKings and FanDuel, according to the American Gaming Association. Yet the AGA estimates that Americans spend $64 billion (total handle) betting illegally every year, meaning the underground market is still more than half the size of the legal one six years after the U.S. Supreme Court lifted the sports gambling ban.
A professional sports bettor who lives in Las Vegas and asked to remain anonymous out of fear of attracting attention from law enforcement, says there are two main reasons people still use bookies: taxes and credit.
“If you go to Downtown Las Vegas and bet on the Super Bowl and win big, legally you need to pay taxes on that win,” says the professional gambler. “It’s considered income, and you owe the IRS.”
At many sportsbooks, taxes are taken out of winnings if a ticket cashed pays 300-1 odds or higher. And many gamblers prefer to use bookies for this exact reason. Legal sportsbooks also require gamblers to post cash in advance for every bet made, but bookies famously extend credit, a big draw for sharps and amateur gamblers alike.
“The power of credit lines is vital for success,” the pro bettor says, explaining how sharps need to get as many bets down as possible and many sportsbooks will put the brakes on their action. That’s why many pros use proxies (or “beards” in betting parlance) to get money down in a casino and gamble on credit with a bookie. “We work on such little volume that we need credit.”
As for the millions of amateurs who bet on apps or in sportsbooks, bookies offer an opportunity for them to get in on the action when they’re light on money. “When you run out of cash, you still want to bet the games,” the Las Vegas veteran says. “So you look for an illegal bookmaker.” In some cases, a local bookie may even offer better odds than the legal sportsbooks, which is also appealing to both professional and amateur gamblers.
For many sports fans across the country, the Ohtani saga is the natural outcome of legalized gambling—even in a sport like baseball, where it has been the ultimate sin for more than a century. In 1919, eight members of the Chicago White Sox were accused of fixing the World Series. The players, including the legendary “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, were banned from the sport for life despite being acquitted in a public trial. Pete Rose, the MLB’s all-time hits king, has not been inducted into the Hall of Fame due to his permanent ban from the sport for betting on baseball as a player and then a manager. And basketball legend Michael Jordan, who famously loves gambling, was investigated by the NBA in the 1993, but cleared of any wrongdoing.
Today, there are gambling scandals sprawling across the sports world, from soccer to football to basketball. In March 2022, Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Calvin Ridley was suspended indefinitely from the NFL for betting $1,500 on his team. (After being traded to the Jacksonville Jaguars, Ridley was reinstated in March 2023.) Last season, 10 players in the NFL were hit with penalties for betting on games. And just this week in the NBA, only days after the Ohtani scandal came to light, ESPN reported that Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter is being investigated in relation to a series of prop bet irregularities.
Now that gambling on sports is legal in 38 states, every league has inked multi-million-dollar deals with casinos and sports betting companies. And the rise of legalized betting has created a cottage industry of tech companies that hope to protect the games from corruption: Genius Sports and Sportradar both have integrity divisions that police games and betting markets in hopes to catch matching-fixing scandals and prevent players, coaches and team staff from betting. But these companies aren’t designed to catch players gambling in the shadows.
Joe Maloney, a senior vice president at the AGA, says anyone who thinks there are more betting scandals now than before leagues started making deals with gambling companies is being naïve. “Do you think an offshore illegal website in Curacao has been sharing data with the NFL for the previous 20 years about irregular betting activity,” Maloney asks rhetorically. “This idea that these violations and activities weren't taking place is a little pollyannish.”
A Las Vegas-based bookie who runs an illegal operation that he claims brings in more than $50 million in annual revenue, says legalization has cut into his business. His revenue used to be more than $100 million a year until DraftKings and FanDuel started offering enticing promotions and a seemingly endless offering of prop bets. But he has more money than he knows what to do with—he does not use banks and has to be "real creative" in how he stores his cash—and is okay with a smaller number of clients.
“Bookies are always going to be around,” he says confidently. “But maybe it will end up we’re only booking sharps and degenerates who can’t post up cash in legal books.”
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