As expected, bookmaker Mathew Bowyer pleaded guilty to three charges last Friday for his role in a sweeping probe into the illegal California sports betting market.

Described as one of the nation’s largest bettor-bookmakers, Bowyer’s operation allegedly accepted millions of dollars in wagers from Ippei Mizuhara, the former interpreter of Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Shohei Ohtani.

During an Aug. 9 hearing, Bowyer pleaded guilty to operating an illegal gambling business, transactional money laundering, and filing a false tax return. Based on federal sentencing guidelines, Bowyer could theoretically receive a prison sentence of approximately 18 years. But since Bowyer plans to cooperate with federal authorities, the sentence could be reduced to a range of 30 to 37 months, according to Diane Bass, his attorney.

“Mr. Bowyer is very relieved to finally accept responsibility for his conduct,” Bass told a pool of reporters outside a Santa Ana courthouse. “He is looking forward to receiving his sentence so he can put this chapter behind him.”

Bowyer made the plea at the heart of pennant races in Major League Baseball and several weeks before the start of football season. According to his plea agreement, Bowyer operated an unlicensed and illegal bookmaking business that focused on sports betting and violated a California law that prohibits bookmaking.

Bowyer’s gambling business remained in operation for at least five years until October 2023, and at times, had more than 700 bettors. While the scale of Bowyer’s operations are still not entirely clear, he had unreported income of $4.03 million in tax year 2022, including $3.8 million in wire transfers into one of his bank accounts, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.

Bowyer’s sophisticated ring included dozens of underlings, including bookies, sub-bookies, agents, and collectors, according to a source who spoke to Sports Handle on the condition of anonymity.

Following the hearing, federal prosecutors on the case did not divulge the scope of any further indictments, or if any others are imminent. Although the operations handled football wagers in bulk, the Bowyer Gambling Business favored baseball as its sport of choice, according to the source.

Mizuhara, Ohtani’s ex-translator, pleaded guilty in June to embezzling more than $16 million from the Japanese star to repay his considerable sports betting debts.

Upon Mizuhara’s plea, MLB announced that the league considers Ohtani a “victim of fraud,” based on the thoroughness of the federal investigation. Ohtani has vehemently denied any knowledge of Mizuhara’s gambling activities and has denied placing any wagers on baseball.

Besides Mizuhara, other Bowyer gambling business customers included “Individual B,” a professional baseball player for a Southern California-based baseball club, and “Individual C,” a former minor-league baseball player, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Based on Bowyer’s cooperation with authorities, Bass does not believe that any additional MLB players will be implicated.

The convergence of betting scandals in college and professional sports has served as a hot topic at major industry events over the last six months. Mizuhara resigned from the Dodgers in the same month that former Raptors center Jontay Porter limited his game participation to influence the outcome of one or more bets on his performance, according to an NBA investigation.

Porter, who was subsequently banned for life from the NBA, is awaiting sentencing on wire fraud charges.

Also that month, Temple University faced an inquiry surrounding a suspicious pattern of line movements prior to a game against UAB.

All told, Mizuhara is accused of placing approximately 19,000 wagers with the Bowyer gambling business, while accumulating net losses of minus-$40.6 million. The wagering activity, however, did not involve any bets on baseball, according to a federal complaint.

“This is troubling — it’s the shot heard around the world,” Bill Pascrell III, partner at Princeton Public Affairs Group, told Sports Handle in April when court filings in the Mizuhara case were unsealed. “We have to get ahead of this. The industry needs to be more self-regulating and has to take issues like this far more seriously.”

— Matt Rybaltowski (@MattRybaltowski) August 1, 2024

As it relates to Bowyer, his unlawful business used several Costa Rica-based websites and a call center so agents and customers could place and track bets, according to prosecutors. Furthermore, Bowyer operated his illegal business while gambling at a casino — identified in court documents as “Casino A,” prosecutors allege. At times, Bowyer paid his agents commissions in casino chips from the property, according to court filings.

The intersection between the unregulated market and the expansion of legal sports betting in the U.S. will take center stage at two prominent industry events this week.

On Monday, an all-star panel will delve into the “innovation and expansion of the unregulated market” at the Racing and Gaming Conference at Saratoga. The panel features state regulators, Wall Street analysts, and a prominent gambling lobbyist.

— Tisha Thompson (@TishaESPN) August 9, 2024

It will take place approximately 24 hours before Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeff Mitchell is scheduled to give a presentation at the 2024 BSA/AML Gaming Conference in Las Vegas. Mitchell is one of the lead prosecutors on the sweeping California investigation.

His appearance is scheduled to take place several months after former MGM Grand President Scott Sibella was sentenced to probation in connection with his failure to file a suspicious transaction report, pursuant to the Bank Secrecy Act. In that case, Sibella admitted guilt in connection with his relationship with Wayne Nix, a former minor league pitcher and illegal bookmaker.

As part of Sibella’s plea, the former MGM executive admitted that he believed that Nix had involvement with an illegal sports betting operation, but he did not fulfill the requisite reporting obligations. Sibella left MGM Grand to become the president of Resorts World Las Vegas. Last fall, the multi-billion casino resort terminated Sibella for violating unspecified company policies.

According to the conference website, Mitchell “will provide a deep dive into the intricacies of these cases, highlighting the stipulated revisions to MGM’s anti-money laundering program as part of the settlement agreement with the casino.”

At the moment, Resorts World Las Vegas (RWLV) is not facing criminal charges in connection with the probe. Bowyer first surfaced publicly last summer in social media allegations on the case. Over the next several months, his operations apparently began to unravel when federal law enforcement authorities raided his Southern California home.

Shortly after the raid, the sportsbook at RWLV prohibited a slew of VIP bettors from entering the facility, according to a source with direct knowledge of the policy.

As a result, the college football handle at the sportsbook plunged about 80% from a typical college football Saturday, the source told Sports Handle last October.

Mizuhara will be sentenced on October 25 and likely faces deportation to Japan.

https://t.co/PFKo2gyEVC

— Yakyu Cosmopolitan (@yakyucosmo) August 10, 2024

Bowyer transferred or directed the transfer of at least $9.34 million to “Casino A” in the form of wire transfers as payment for casino markers, according to his plea agreement.

Over the period, he also lost at least $4.16 million in wagers at the casino, according to the agreement. At times, Casino A’s sportsbook reached out to Bowyer in an attempt to encourage him to make large bets as a way to offset the sportsbook’s risk, prosecutors allege.

Multiple sources have identified Casino A as Resorts World Las Vegas, ESPN reported this month. Resorts World Las Vegas has neither confirmed nor denied the report.

“We are aware that Mathew R. Bowyer has pleaded guilty to federal charges,” a Resorts World Las Vegas spokesperson wrote in a statement provided to Sports Handle. “We are cooperating with their ongoing investigation, and we do not comment on pending legal matters.”

Bowyer is scheduled to be sentenced before U.S. District Court Judge John W. Holcomb on Feb. 7, 2025. Holcomb is also the presiding judge in Mizuhara’s sentencing.

There is some irony in the timing of Bowyer’s sentencing — the illegal bookmaker is scheduled to learn his fate two days before Super Bowl.