Shohei Ohtani, the golden phenom from Japan who recently signed a record-breaking contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers, is the latest professional athlete to find himself in the middle of a scandal involving sports betting.
On Wednesday, the Dodgers announced they had fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s longtime interpreter and friend, after discovering that he had incurred millions of dollars of gambling debts to a Southern California bookie. It should be noted that sports betting is still illegal in California.
Here’s where it gets weird. Ohtani’s spokesman told ESPN that the baseball player had helped Mizuhara pay off his gambling debts while the soon-to-be-fired interpreter sat for an interview with the sports network on Tuesday. But the next day, the spokesman said that a new statement would be forthcoming.
That statement came from Ohtani’s lawyers, Berk Brettler, who said that the Dodgers player was “the victim of a massive theft, and we are turning the matter over to the authorities.” Shortly thereafter, Mizuhara was fired.
Over the coming days and weeks, Ohtani’s role in the scandal will be scrutinized, as will his lawyer’s claim that the star baseball player was a victim of “massive theft” after initially saying he had paid off his friend’s debts.
As unfortunate as the unfolding saga is for Ohtani, the Dodgers, and Major League Baseball, the situation is yet another example of the chaos that can be wrought by the wide-open world of legal sports betting. The integrity of the game will be questioned, as will the honesty of the biggest star in baseball.
It’s practically impossible to avoid the explosion of popularity of sports gambling. DraftKings, FanDuel, and BetMGM are just a few of the numerous sportsbooks that have grown at an exponential rate, promising quick wealth with glitzy ads with massive promotions offering new gamblers free bets. And each professional sports league has proved to be an all-too-willing partner in this mad dash to maximize profits.
But the scandal in the Los Angeles Dodgers dugout is about more than just sports betting and a PR disaster for the biggest star in baseball. It’s a window into the dark world of gambling addiction and the chaos it inflicts on families and relationships.
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While most people who gamble can set their limits and stick to them, sportsbooks and casinos do not differentiate between the responsible bettor and the crippling gambling addict. They will gleefully take money from anyone who hands it to them.
It’s too early to know whether Mizuhara or Ohtani is telling the truth about what happened between them. But at the very least, it should serve as a warning to a professional sports industry that has all too eagerly embraced a morally deficient gambling industry without thinking about the possibility of a negative impact on their own organizations.