Photo Credits: Matt Rybaltowski
Mathew Bowyer ran an illegal sportsbook with more than 700 customers, but Ippei Mizuhara stood apart. Bowyer said the former Shohei Ohtani interpreter placed bets throughout the night and kept increasing his risk while trying to recover mounting losses.
Good to Know
ESPN featured Bowyer in The Betrayal of Shohei Ohtani, a six-part 30 for 30 podcast that began on July 28. Bowyer said he recognized compulsive gambling patterns within one month because he had faced similar problems himself.
“He was absolutely bananas, the amount of bets he was making,” Bowyer said. “Listen, I gambled bigger than most, right? I sleep, you know, I have a life too.”
“He definitely was betting all night long, all the time. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Mizuhara bet on basketball, hockey, college sports and international soccer after meeting Bowyer through former Los Angeles Angels player David Fletcher at a San Diego poker game in 2021. He denied betting on baseball.
Federal records show Mizuhara won at least $142.3 million but lost $182.9 million across more than two years. Bowyer repeatedly increased his limits as the debt grew.
“He was trying to dig out a hole, and that hole made him even more poor of a gambler because he’s betting big payout stuff,” Bowyer said.
Mizuhara transferred at least $16.25 million from an Ohtani bank account to accounts controlled by Bowyer. He impersonated Ohtani during calls with bank staff to approve transactions. Prosecutors later found no evidence that Ohtani knew about the theft or took part in illegal betting.
Mizuhara now serves a 57-month federal prison sentence in Pennsylvania after pleading guilty to bank fraud and filing a false tax return. A court also ordered restitution of nearly $17 million to Ohtani and $1.15 million to the IRS.
Bowyer also used Las Vegas casinos to convert illegal bookmaking proceeds into cash. He described buying in with cashier checks, gambling part of the money and collecting the remaining balance.
“Sometimes I would gamble solely to turn a cashier’s check into cash, so that I could wash money,” Bowyer said. “Let’s say I lost 70 grand, but I brought $500,000. I got $430,000 coming to me, right?”
Federal prosecutors said Bowyer directed at least $9.3 million in illegal proceeds to casinos for markers used by him and his associates. A judge sentenced him to 12 months and one day in prison and ordered $1.61 million in restitution.
Nevada regulators later penalized several casino companies over failures involving Bowyer and other illegal bookmakers. Resorts World Las Vegas paid $10.5 million, MGM Resorts paid $8.5 million and Caesars Palace paid $7.8 million with The Venetian settling $7.2 million. The cases centered on weak source-of-funds checks and anti-money laundering controls.