It will have to be ironclad evidence Ohtani did something wrong for them to take action against him. If he didn't gamble but broke the law by paying the debts, there will likely be no punishment or a slap on the wrist.
to brush it away so easily. Also, you could have a party turn state's evidence and sing like a canary.
"Penalties for players who place non-baseball bets with illegal bookmakers fall under the discretion of the commissioner; the last case was in 2015, when then-Miami Marlins pitcher Jarred Cosart was fined an undisclosed amount."
If he's only guilty of sending money to an illegal gambling operation to pay off his interpreter's debt, I can't imagine MLB would do anything more than a fine. If he's in prison, which I think is highly unlikely, the decision will have been made for them.
One day they are messiahs and the next they're pariahs. Oh wow, that almost rhymes.
It's constantly evolving. As far as I understand everything:
- The interpreter (Mizuhara) admitted to being a horrible gambler (no kidding) and said he would play poker and bet on soccer, basketball, and football, but not baseball. These were illegal bets, not DraftKings or something like that.
- The original explanation given by Ohtani's team was he bailed his friend out. They then changed this to Mizuhara was stealing from Ohtani and Ohtani was unaware the money was leaving his accounts.
- I feel like they made this change when they realized that Ohtani paying off these debts is still illgeal. Not a good look.
- This change of tune makes little sense. Ohtani may have just signed a $700mm contract, but it's almost all deferred. He's not exactly poor, but he should have noticed $4.5mm missing. Plus why would his interpreter have access? Why wouldn't his bank have alerted him? My wife is a financial advisor for high net worth individuals - this amount of money would have set off all sorts of alerts and red flags.
So I guess the three big questions: which explanation is true?; did Mizuhara in fact not bet on baseball?; and finally, do we know for sure it was Mizuhara betting and not Ohtani?
MLB and Ohtani desperately want this to go away, but I suspect it will not.
I picked up Ohtani as a pitcher in a keeper league with my last pick, intending to stash him on the DL and activate him next season.
The fantasy baseball gods have a long history of antipathy towards me. Never thought they'd go this far, but......
I don't gamble anymore, so I don't know how this world works now. I thought sports gambling was essentially legal at this point. If I wanted to bet $10,000 on the Cubs to win their spring training game today, couldn't I do that from where I sit right now with no trouble? Why would people go through illegal sports betting outlets today? Is it some combination of tax evasion, anonymity, betting limits? State restrictions on using legal sites?
Mentioned in some of the articles on this.
Full list of states is in the article from last Nov.
gambling companies. Basically a list of individuals who cannot place bets with them, which is intended to protect the game’s integrity. I assume Ohtani (and possibly his interpreter as well) is on those list, pushing any gambling to more shady spots.
Seems I'm continuously encouraged to bet on sports here through online, TV, billboards, and radio ads. I spend a lot of time in CA and never noticed the difference.
trying again in 2024.