Mathew Bowyer, an Orange County bookmaker at the center of the sports betting scandal involving popular baseball player Shohei Ohtani’s former interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, has been released from prison and gave an exclusive interview for NBCLA.
Bowyer Is Now a Free Man
Bowyer was sentenced to one year in prison for operating an illegal bookmaking enterprise for over 25 years. Among his approximately 1,200 clients was Shohei Ohtani’s former interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, who is currently serving a 57-month sentence in a Pennsylvania prison.
Bowyer said from his home in San Juan Capistrano that his circumstances had shifted dramatically when he went to prison. Moving “from butlers to private jets to Rolls-Royces” and other material luxuries to eating what he described as “dog food” certainly shook his world.
When asked whether he regretted operating the illegal business, he said he did not. He explained that while he regretted some of the poor decisions he had made, he did not regret the experience overall, as it had shaped who he had become.
Interestingly, Bowyer served just seven months of his one-year sentence in prison. However, despite being released early, the former bookmaker is now on probation. As part of it, he is prohibited from gambling for two years. He said that while he was in prison, Nevada gaming officials visited him and added him to a list of 39 excluded individuals permanently banned from entering any Nevada casino. Additionally, Bowyer also noted that he is required to attend weekly gambling addiction meetings and must pay approximately $9 million to the IRS in back taxes, penalties, and interest.
Last year, Ohtani’s former interpreter, Mizuhara, was sentenced to almost five years in federal prison after admitting to stealing nearly $17 million from the Los Angeles Dodgers player to fuel his gambling habit. He was also ordered to repay $18 million, with most of the restitution going to Ohtani and the remainder to the IRS.
The scandal rocked both the gambling industry and the world of professional baseball. It uncovered a vast illegal gambling network of which Mizuhara and Bowyer were major parts.
Now that he is free, Bowyer said he plans to continue working on a second book. The first was written before he went to prison as a way of telling his story in his own words, while the upcoming book will revolve around his adjustment to life after prison.