
A bookmaker from Southern California entered a guilty plea on Friday to operating an unlawful gambling enterprise. The bookmaker had received thousands of sports bets from the former baseball player Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter.
The plea was submitted by 49-year-old Mathew Bowyer in Santa Ana federal court. In addition, he entered a guilty plea to charges of money laundering and filing a fake tax return. He will be sentenced on February 7.
Bowyer told the judge, “I was operating an illicit gambling business and laundering money through other people’s bank accounts.”
Upon the hearing, federal prosecutors chose not to comment.
Prosecutors claim that Bowyer operated an illicit gambling operation in Southern California and Las Vegas for at least five years, accepting bets from over 700 participants, including Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s former interpreter.
It is illegal to run an unregulated betting operation at the federal level. While 38 states and the District of Columbia permit some sort of sports gambling, it is forbidden in California.
Mizuhara, who stole close to $17 million from Los Angeles Angels player Shohei Ohtani’s bank account before he signed a contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers this offseason, entered a guilty plea to bank and tax fraud.
Mizuhara, who is due to be punished in October, according to federal investigators, placed roughly 19,000 bets between September 2021 and January 2024. Mizuhara made a net loss of around $41 million from his losing bets of about $183 million, while his gains of over $142 million were placed into his own bank account rather than Ohtani’s.
Yet, detectives were unable to uncover any proof that Mizuhara had placed a baseball wager. Additionally, according to the prosecution, there is no proof that Ohtani knew about or was involved in Mizuhara’s gaming; the player, who assisted the authorities, is seen as a victim.
According to federal authorities, two former minor league players and a professional baseball player for a Southern California club were among Bowyer’s other clients. In court documents, neither party’s name was mentioned.
The latest controversy involving sports betting this year, which included Bowyer’s guilty pleas, resulted in a player being banned by Major League Baseball for life, marking the first such suspension since Pete Rose’s in 1989. In June, the league penalized four players for lawful baseball wagering and permanently barred Tucupita Marcano, an infielder for the San Diego Padres. Marcano was the first player to be permanently banned for gambling in a century and still be playing.
Rose, whose playing career was already finished, accepted his suspension in 1989 when it was discovered during an inquiry that, while managing and playing for the Cincinnati Reds, he had wagered a lot of money on the team to win between 1985 and 1987.
It is against the league’s gambling policy for players and staff members to bet on baseball, even if they do so lawfully. MLB forbids using unlicensed or offshore bookmakers to wager on other sports. The commissioner’s office has the final say over the penalty.