LOS ANGELES (CN) — A Southern California man has admitted he operated an illegal sports betting business that facilitated the gambling habits of professional athletes as well as the former translator of Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani.
Mathew Bowyer, 49, of San Juan Capistrano, has agreed to plead guilty to a three-count information charging him with operating an unlawful gambling business, money laundering, and filing a false income tax return, according to a statement Thursday by the U.S. attorney’s office in LA.
Ohtani’s translator Ippei Mizuhara pleaded guilty earlier this year to stealing nearly $17 million from the star hitter and pitcher — his close friend — in order to fund his deliriously expensive and unsuccessful gambling habit.
From September 2021 to January of this year, Mizuhara placed at least 19,000 bets with Bowyer’s illegal gambling business, according to the government. During this period, Mizuhara had total winning bets of at least $142 million, and total losing bets of about $182 million leaving him in a $40 million hole. Bowyer increased Mizuhara’s betting limits regularly during his out-of-control betting spree.
Other gamblers who used Bowyer’s bookmaking services were identified as “Individual B,” a professional baseball player for a Southern California-based team, and “Individual C,” a former minor-league baseball player.
“Mr. Bowyer is looking forward to accepting responsibility for his actions,” said his attorney Diane Bass.
Bowyer ran his bookmaking operation from locations in Southern California and from Las Vegas, where at times he took business calls while gambling himself at a place identified as “Casino A” in his plea agreement.
“Defendant would adjust credit lines and discuss payments and bets with clients of the Bowyer gambling business by phone while gambling in Casino A,” according to the plea deal. “At times, Casino A staff would stop play at a table game while defendant took calls and discussed the Bowyer Gambling Business. At other times, defendant would collect payments of proceeds of the Bowyer Gambling Business while gambling at Casino A, including payments in casino chips or in cash in envelopes or bags.”
Bowyer would also bring agents, bettors, and associates of his business to Casino A to gamble as a group, some of whom were referred to by Casino A employees as the “Bowyer Group,” according to the plea agreement.
“In addition, Casino A’s sports book would at times reach out to defendant and invite defendant to make large bets, to offset the sports book’s risk,” according to the filing.
During the five years that Bowyer ran his bookmaking business, he had about 700 clients using it.
The Dodgers fired Mizuhara in March, hours after a game in South Korea in which he and Ohtani could be seen chatting amicably in the dugout. Initially, Mizuhara told the media that Ohtani had been covering his gambling debts. The next day, Mizuhara admitted he had stolen the money. The shifting narrative had fueled speculation that Ohtani himself was gambling.
Even the illegal bookmaker, at the time still unidentiried, appears to have thought that Mizuhara was placing bets on behalf of his famous employer. After news of the scandal broke, according to the complaint, Mizuhara texted the bookie, asking, “Have you seen the reports?”
The bookie responded: “Yes, but that’s all bullshit. Obviously you didn’t steal from him. I understand it’s a cover job I totally get it.”
The translator replied: “Technically I did steal from him. it’s all over for me.”