At 9:30 a.m. on October 5, 2023, Mathew Bowyer was in his driveway in San Juan Capistrano, California buckling his son into the car seat when he heard someone yell: “FBI, freeze!”
Bowyer, who was 48 years old at the time, turned around to see more than two dozen agents, pointing rifles and clad in tactical gear, surrounding him and his home.
The bookie, who says he had taken $1 billion in wagers from his 1,200 clients that year betting on sports games, knew he was in over his head. At the time, he figured the agents had come to his home because of one particular client, Ippei Mizuhara, the interpreter for the Los Angeles Dodgers’ star player, Shohei Ohtani, who had run up a gambling debt of $40.2 million in just over two years.
The scandal almost took down baseball’s three-time MVP and the second highest-paid player in the game. Ohtani denied any involvement and was never charged with a crime, saying Mizuhara defrauded him of millions of dollars. After an investigation revealed Mizuhara was the one gambling, stealing a total of $16.2 million from Ohtani to pay Bowyer $500,000 every few weeks, he received a five-year prison sentence for bank and tax fraud. For his role, Bowyer was sentenced 12 months and one day for running an illegal gambling operation, money laundering and filing falsified tax returns.
While Bowyer is the face of the biggest sports betting scandal in recent history, his conviction does not mean that the illegal bookmaking industry is going away. “The illegal side is always going to be there,” he tells Forbes. Over the last 12 months, illegal sportsbooks took in $84 billion in wagers and $5 billion in revenue, according to the American Gaming Association, while legal sportsbooks made $13.78 billion in revenue off $149.9 billion in wagers in 2024.
“You have a million bookmakers across the country right now, and people don't realize it,” says Bowyer. “I would say [there are bookies] everywhere, especially the major cities”—or at least a runner who can take wagers for a boss in another location. Bowyer found his clients at the golf course and met Mizuhara in 2021 at an underground poker game in San Diego.
“At the end of the day, there's availability for illegal bookmakers throughout the country,” says Bowyer.
As for scandals in the sports world, Mizuhara and Bowyer might be the biggest, but they are not even the latest to be caught. Earlier this month, the NCAA announced that it launched an investigation into 13 former college basketball players from six schools who are alleged to have been betting on and against their own teams and manipulating game outcomes.
In April 2024, the NBA banned Toronto Raptors center Jontay Porter for life after the league’s investigation found he was wagering on NBA games, sharing information with sports bettors and limiting his own participation in games for betting purposes. Over the years, NFL players have been suspended for violating betting rules, from Calvin Ridley while he was a wide receiver for the Atlanta Falcons, to former Detroit Lions wide receiver Quintez Cephus and former Washington Commanders defensive end Shaka Toney. Scandals have hit hockey, golf, the UFC and other sports.
Bowyer says he estimates that about half of all professional athletes gamble on sports and the public should expect more scandals, especially in college athletics. Bowyer estimates about 15% to 20% of clients were athletes but he would not allow them wager on their own sports.
“There's been many that haven't been brought up yet or found or maybe got away with, let's be honest,” he says.
All of this was easily predictable. In 2018, the Supreme Court overturned the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act. Better known as PASPA, the law effectively made sports betting illegal except in Nevada and a few other states. After the ban was struck down, states have been allowed to legalize sports betting and launch their own programs. Now, 39 states have legal sports betting markets and wagering on games is as mainstream, and American, as baseball.
“The minute that [PASPA was struck down], I knew this was going to happen,” says Bowyer. “Gambling has become more relevant, there’s going to be more temptation. I think there will be a lot more scandals.”
Bowyer got caught thanks to an unraveling investigation at Resorts World Las Vegas involving other illegal bookmakers. Casinos, like banks, must follow anti-money laundering and Know-Your-Customer laws and cannot knowingly allow criminals to gamble. Bowyer, who was a known bookie, gambled nearly $12 million of Ohtani’s money at Resorts World. The former president of the casino, Scott Sibella, was fired and lost his gaming license and the casino was fined $10.5 million by the Nevada Gaming Control Board.
While Bowyer takes responsibility for running an illegal business, and for almost ruining Ohtani’s career, he says he became a scapegoat, along with Sibella, for Sin City’s sins.
“I don't want to play victim,” he says, “I do feel like I'm a little bit of the fall guy for the Vegas part. Not baseball—that came from my operation.”
Bowyer, who says he is addicted to gambling, has since been banned from every casino in the country. But shortly after his home got raided in October 2023, he went to the Native American-owned casino Pechenga in Tolecula, California to play his favorite game, Baccarat. (Eventually, he was banned from Pechenga as well.)
“Typical, I lost,” he says. “I was doing it for fun. And have a dopamine rush.”
Since his conviction, Bowyer has been preparing for life after prison. In August, he self-published a book about his life, titled Recalibrate, and he is shopping a documentary about his life as a bookie. Bowyer hopes to become some combination of Jordan Belfort, known as the Wolf of Wall Street, and Frank Abagnale, the former con artist who was played by Leonardo DiCaprio in Catch Me If You Can. But will he ever gamble again?
“Once my probation is over, I'm not going to say I'll never bet again because that would be a lie,” he says. “But will I want to? Will I actually just shut it down and not do it anymore? It's a very good possibility after everything I've been through. And, my wife is not going to be real happy if I'm betting, to be honest with you. That's a fact.”