Mathew Bowyer, the illegal bookmaker who took bets from Ippei Mizuhara, said Mizuhara showed clear signs of problem gambling within 30 days of starting to wager with him.
Bowyer made the comments in an interview featured in the ESPN 30 for 30 podcast series “The Betrayal of Shohei Ohtani.” He described the volume of bets as extreme. “He was absolutely bananas, the amount of bets he was making,” Bowyer said. He also noted that Mizuhara bet constantly, including late at night, and often chased losses with larger wagers.
Mizuhara served as the longtime interpreter for Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani. The two worked together after Ohtani arrived in Major League Baseball. Federal authorities later determined that Mizuhara stole nearly $17 million from Ohtani’s bank accounts to cover gambling losses. Mizuhara pleaded guilty to bank fraud and filing a false tax return. He is serving a 57 month prison sentence.
Court records showed Mizuhara placed about 19,000 bets between late 2021 and early 2024. His total losing bets reached roughly $183 million while winning bets totaled about $142 million, leaving a net debt of more than $40 million to Bowyer’s operation. None of the bets involved baseball.
Bowyer met Mizuhara at a poker game involving Angels players in 2021. He later operated an illegal sports betting business that accepted the wagers. Bowyer himself pleaded guilty to related charges and served a prison sentence of one year and one day.
Ohtani has been cleared of any wrongdoing by Major League Baseball and federal investigators. He has stated that he never bet on sports and did not knowingly send money to the bookmaker.
Mizuhara is currently incarcerated at a low security federal prison.