Pay-and-take day approaches for Matt Bowyer, the high-rolling illegal bookmaker who accepted millions of dollars in bets from the former interpreter of superstar baseball player Shohei Ohtani.
Bowyer, now 49, is scheduled to be sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles after agreeing to plead guilty to operating an illegal gambling business, money laundering and filing a false tax return. Although no one should reasonably expect he will receive a lot of prison time — taken separately, the felonies carry sentences totaling 18 years. Even at a fraction of that, when you throw in the fines and forfeitures, barring a surprise, the federal government will settle its account with Bowyer and say it has sent a message to the shadowed subculture of illegal bookmaking that it takes such crimes seriously.
Given the new reality of widespread legalized sports betting and professional sports leagues entering into agreements with major gambling corporations, delivering such a message might be more challenging than it seems. Go too soft, and the lengthy investigation looks like an exercise in futility. Push too hard and you make it appear some are paying for sins no longer considered all that serious following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2018 decision overturning the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act. Sports and gambling in this country are intertwined as never before.
The linchpin that took this investigation to the next level was the discovery that Bowyer was booking an astounding number of bets for Ohtani’s former interpreter Ippei Mizuhara, who was not only losing millions but using Ohtani’s bank account as his personal cash machine. According to the government, Ohtani was victimized for nearly $17 million.
The authorities said that from 2021 to early 2024, Mizuhara placed at least 19,000 bets totaling hundreds of millions of dollars with Bowyer’s network and in that time frame owed the bookie $40.7 million. Mizuhara, who has admitted he has a gambling problem, pleaded guilty June 4 to bank fraud and filing a false tax return. He is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 25.
If the Mizuhara connection made bookie Bowyer an international news story, then his frequent trips and personal relationships in Las Vegas did nothing but add to the intrigue surrounding one of the biggest gambling bust outs in recent memory.
Bowyer, a San Juan Capistrano, California, resident, has substantial experience at the Strip’s VIP tables, including a particularly intriguing foray at Resorts World Las Vegas — not yet officially identified by the court — that came at a time he was under increasing scrutiny by IRS and U.S. Homeland Security agents. Like many illegal bookmakers, he directed customers to access several Costa Rica-based websites and call centers to process their wagers.
Bowyer’s associations with other bookies and a cast of poker room characters raises more questions about his criminal connections and whether law enforcement and regulatory agencies such as Nevada’s Gaming Control Board are now duty-bound to start cleaning up an area of the casino that traditionally has received little scrutiny. If the tax agents go looking at all the clandestine cash, chips and cryptocurrency in lock boxes and flowing between players, this investigation might not be finished for years.
Bowyer’s own contacts and card playing pals, including The Real Housewives of Orange County star Ryan Boyajian, make this criminal case start to look like the set of a very Vegas reality TV show. As first reported by ESPN, Bowyer directed Mizuhara to wire a portion of the millions he owed to a bank account controlled by Boyajian.
It might be argued that that’s what friends are for. Bowyer and Boyajian have been friends and business partners for two decades. According to one document I’ve reviewed, in 2017 Boyajian deeded ownership of a $2.46 million home to Bowyer. A lawyer for Boyajian told ESPN that the celebrity was cooperating fully with federal authorities in an ongoing investigation. “He is not a bookmaker or a sub-bookie,” criminal attorney Steven Katzman told ESPN.
As part of his plea deal, Bowyer has agreed to forfeit $257,923 in cash and another $14,830 in casino chips agents seized in October 2023 at his California home. He’s also agreed to pay more than $1.6 million in back taxes. It’s notable, though not surprising, that he has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors and investigators.
Meaning, it’s August 2024. The investigation-in-chief, which began several years ago, has all the potential of a long-running story. After all, there’s no shortage of illegal bookmakers in the world. Most people who place a bet on a ballgame still use one.
Matt Bowyer on his worst day is no John Dillinger, but pay-and-take day is almost here. With a little luck, we’ll find out not only how much Bowyer will have to pay, but whether prosecutors reveal some of the other accounts that remain outstanding.
John L. Smith is an author and longtime columnist. He was born in Henderson and his family’s Nevada roots go back to 1881. His stories have appeared in New Lines, Time, Readers Digest, Rolling Stone, The Daily Beast, Reuters and Desert Companion, among others.
