Millions stolen from Shohei Ohtani funneled to bookie via Vegas casino - ESPN

The series of $500,000 payments Ippei Mizuhara sent from Shohei Ohtani's bank account to an illegal bookmaking operation were forwarded to California and Las Vegas casinos, where the money was deposited in gambling accounts, converted to playing chips and later cashed out to pay the bookie, multiple sources with direct knowledge of the operation told ESPN.

The description of what happened to Ohtani's money sheds new light on the ongoing federal probe that drew global attention after his interpreter, Mizuhara, was accused of stealing $16 million from the Los Angeles Dodgers slugger to feed what he has called a gambling addiction.

Mathew Bowyer, the California bookmaker who took Mizuhara's bets, was a frequent customer at Las Vegas casino Resorts World. The sources told ESPN that Mizuhara paid his losses to Bowyer's associate, who forwarded the money to his own «marker» accounts at Resorts World and Pechanga Resort Casino in Southern California. The men then withdrew chips from the marker account, gambled with them, and if they won, cashed out.

Bowyer, 49, lost $7.9 million at Resorts World from June 2022 to October 2023, according to multiple sources. After Bowyer's home was raided by federal agents on Oct. 5, he was dubbed a known bookmaker and banned from entering casinos throughout the United States, according to sources with direct knowledge of the ban.

Neither Bowyer nor his associate has been named in any indictment unsealed to date.

Attorneys for both Bowyer and his associate declined to comment.

Multiple sources told ESPN that Resorts World is at the center of what federal authorities described in an affidavit as an investigation into «illegal sports bookmaking organizations operating in Southern California, and