In a story originally told to ESPN by Shohei Ohtani’s translator Ippei Mizuhara, the two logged into Ohtani’s bank account together eight or nine times in 2023 and wired $500,000 to Mathew Bowyer, who is an alleged illegal bookmaker who is under federal investigation. Ohtani told the public the story, days after Mizuwon gave up his initial claim and was fired by the Dodgers, that the translator had stolen the money to pay off his gambling debts.
Both versions of the story raise a question that has vexed the public: Why would bookmakers extend at least $4.5 million in credit to a man who claimed to work as a translator for the Los Angeles Angels and receive an $85,000 salary? This situation is easier to understand for those familiar with the inner workings of the gambling market.
“Credit is the lifeblood of illegal bookmakers,” said gambling entrepreneur and investor Chris Grove. “We should therefore not be surprised when illegal bookmakers use credit to attract high-value customers, especially when that customer has demonstrated their ability to do so.”
The scandal has captivated the baseball industry and the larger sports world at a time when gambling and sports consumption are intertwined. Ohtani, a 29-year-old two-time American League MVP who recently signed a 10-year, $700 million contract, said he has never bet on baseball or any other sports and has not been accused of any wrongdoing.. He said he was a victim of deception by a friend. “Yipei has been stealing money from my account and lying,” he said through new translator Will Ireton. Major League Baseball has launched an investigation. The IRS’s Los Angeles field office has partnered with the Department of Homeland Security to investigate Mizuhara and Bowyer.
The story also opened the public’s eyes to the little-known world of illegal gambling. Much of the country has gained access to legal sports betting since the Supreme Court struck down a 1992 federal law that effectively banned sports betting in most states. However, a 2022 report from the American Gaming Association estimated that Americans bet a total of $63.8 billion in 2021 with illegal bookmakers and unregulated offshore sites. So why do these bookmakers and offshore operations maintain such a thriving business?
According to interviews with gambling lawyers, entrepreneurs, researchers and professional gamblers, the appeal of credit – the ability to bet with money you don’t actually have – is the main reason. Much of the commentary from these experts was directed at the wider world of illegal gambling rather than the saga of Ohtani and Mizuwon. But they also point to a variety of other factors driving punters to bookmakers, including the promise of privacy, the ability to avoid tax on winnings, the removal of artificial betting limits and the enduring appeal of convenience.
“What’s going on in Otani is a good reminder that the illicit market still thrives because there are still people in the illicit market who are willing to offer consumers something that the regulated market can’t or won’t offer,” Grove said.
The prosecutorial team that went after Bowyer was the same team investigating another gambling ring run by former minor league baseball player Wayne Nix. According to the Los Angeles Times. Former Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig, one of more than a dozen people charged in the investigation, has pleaded not guilty. The Nix probe demonstrates the modernity of this approach. The concept of meeting gamblers in dark alleys or seedy bars is outdated. The Knicks used a network of bookmakers to collect bets through websites and phone lines. According to the Washington Post.
Popular poker player and commentator Joey Ingram explains that this convenience adds to the appeal, especially when placing illegal bets can be done with just the click of a few buttons rather than the need to walk into a poker room. Vegas casinos. “The last thing a guy wants to do is go to Circa Sportsbook every day and put $20,000 on (a game),” Ingram said. “Some people just text someone, or they go to a website.”
Bookmakers often maintain a personal relationship with their customers, excusing certain bets, offering free game points, or expressing sympathy for “bad beats,” the unfortunate outcome that unites all gamblers. “The customer service they provide is sometimes not available through the app,” said Timothy Fong, co-director of the Gambling Research Program at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Fang is a psychiatrist who studies the causes and treatment options for gambling addiction. Some people who bet through illegal bookmakers want to remain anonymous. Others don’t want to pay taxes on a potential jackpot.
Daniel Wallach is a Florida sports betting and gambling attorney who previously represented Competitor, showing a sense of loyalty can bond bettors with bookmakers. “Given all the incentives, these patterns may be difficult to break,” Wallach said. For regulars, “there may be better lines and better odds.”
Bookmakers also offer bets that legal bookmakers cannot or will not offer, depending on state laws or risk of exposure. For example, some states have banned betting on local college teams, and in the context of the March Madness college basketball tournament, the NCAA is trying to further restrict college betting; last week, NCAA President Charlie Baker urged states to ban it entirely Prop bets on college athletes. Bookmakers operate in a world that does not care about these developments, which can be attractive to punters looking for a specific type of action that may not be available in the legal books.
“I can buy 100 different cereals from my bookmaker instead of the 30 cereals they offer,” Fong said.
In March, spectators watched the March Madness NCAA tournament games at a sports betting site at the Borgata Casino in New Jersey. (Wayne Parry/AP)
For Suwon and Daegu, location is important. California is one of 12 states where sports betting is illegal. In 2022, voters there rejected two competing ballot initiatives to keep it that way, showing how difficult it would be to legalize gaming amid a costly and often bitter battle between tribal casinos and private gaming companies. Proposition 26 would legalize live betting at tribal casinos and racetracks. Proposition 27 would allow online sports betting.
Mizuhara told ESPN he was already facing more than $1 million in gambling debts when voters rejected the measures. Mizuhara said he met Bowyer at a poker game in San Diego in 2021. According to the Los Angeles Times, in order to promote business, Bowyer told colleagues that Ohtani was a client. Bowyer’s attorney, Diane Bass, said her client had zero contact with Ohtani.
In many cases, players must be referred to the bookmaker by an existing customer, and existing customers sometimes receive a referral bonus when a new player places a bet. If a new player does not pay the bookmaker when required, referrals will be cut off; peer pressure is often enough to become the first resort for punters to pay off their gambling debts.
Bookmakers also incentivize customers to pay in the form of free games or other forms of free bets; bettors are incentivized to pay and use free bets to continue to recover losses and turn a profit. If a bettor is in debt, bookmakers will accept partial payments or offer customers weekly or monthly payment plans. Payments are usually made through cash transfer apps like Venmo or PayPal, but cash is sometimes mailed depending on the size of the transaction.
Mizuhara told ESPN that Bowyer extended him a line of credit that expanded his losses into millions of dollars, which experts said was common practice among bookmakers that were confident in bettors’ ability to pay.
Bookmakers can make a handsome income, especially if they can attract some high-value customers with deep pockets – assuming they can stay out of the authorities’ crosshairs. Bettors themselves rarely, if ever, face legal consequences for placing bets at illegal bookmakers; when governments investigate illegal betting, they usually prosecute the operators, not the customers. But at the same time, the lack of government regulation can have a negative impact on gamblers who win big money. If a bookmaker decides not to pay out a large bonus, players have no choice.
Some of the largest unregulated gambling operations are completely outside the jurisdiction of U.S. state regulators because they are headquartered in foreign countries. These so-called “offshore” sites often brand themselves as regulated U.S. sportsbooks and have domain names such as “.lv” to indicate they are based in Las Vegas (in this example, lv stands for Latvia). These typically do not offer the personal experience offered by illegal US bookmakers, credit is often not available, and cash transfers in and out can be difficult; some gamblers use cryptocurrencies to transact with these books. A small number of punters place bets on such sites without knowing they are illegal, and they stumble upon one of the many unregulated sites that appear to be legitimate.
“You look at it: it’s clean, it’s fresh, it looks like something regulated,” Fang said. “It doesn’t look any different than a cheap version of DraftKings or FanDuel. It’s got all the bets on it.” Fong explained that uninformed consumers “have no idea that what they’re actually participating in is unregulated, unprotected.” Gambling activities.”
Betting via illegal operations can also be lucrative for bettors if they do well enough and are certain to get paid out; experts say that in addition to taxing players’ winnings, regulated sites Sometimes there are also restrictions on the behavior of gamblers who are considered winners. Bookmakers may offer more freedom, certainly not taxed, but not restricted either. “In the illegal market, you are unlikely to find any restrictions or restrictions on the amount you can bet,” Wallach said.
The evidence suggests Suwon is far from winning bettors. Mizuwon portrays himself as an addict who cannot undo his losses. The use of credit also helps bookmakers in these situations.
“What they’re doing is getting these people to invest money that they don’t have,” Ingram said. “It’s very predatory. It’s really sad because that’s how gambling works in a lot of the world.”
(Top photo of Mizuwon and Ohtani at the Los Angeles Rams game in December: Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)
