Mathew Bowyer, the illegal bookmaker who took Ippei Mizuhara’s bets, has said that plenty of professional athletes wager on sports.
The bookie is facing sentencing on April 4 after pleading guilty to taking illegal sports bets, money laundering, and filing a false tax return.
Meanwhile, Mizuhara has been sentenced to 57 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution of $18.1 million, with $17 million to be returned to Shohei Ohtani and the balance to the IRS.
Bowyer recently spoke to the New York Post in an exclusive interview and admitted to feeling bad because of his involvement in the former interpreter stealing from Ohtani. He also confessed that he could have stopped Ippei but allowed him to dig himself into a deeper hole because of his own greed.
“Now, I feel guilty because I feel I was part of it,” he said.
Mathew Bowyer Says Professional Athletes Seldom Bet On Their Own Sports
The Department of Justice disclosed that Bowyer took bets from several current and former professional athletes. He told the Post that the late Pete Rose was one of his clients.
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The bookmaker added that he believes around half of current pros bet on sports.
“I know some of them are still betting on sports,” he said, “If 50 percent are gambling, I would think 10 percent of those are compulsive gamblers.”
Bowyer said he reckons less than three percent of those athletes bet on their own sports.
He noted that he doesn’t believe professional games are fixed and was shocked to hear about the federal investigation into NBA guard Terry Rozier last week.
“I was very surprised because he’s filthy rich and usually the people that tend to be doing these things aren’t on $90 million contracts,” he said of the Miami Heat star.
Bowyer told the publication he is hoping to get probation instead of a prison sentence.
