California bookie at center of gambling scandal thought link to Shohei Ohtani would help business

Mathew Bowyer, is the Orange County bookie at the center of the Shohei Ohtani gambling scandal. As a gambler, Mathew Bowyer bet big, often unsuccessfully, listing nearly half a million dollars in losses to two Las Vegas casinos in his 2011 bankruptcy.

But it is his role in the Ohtani scandal that brought an unwelcome horde of reporters to his doorstep in San Juan Capistrano one recent morning and put a global spotlight on a federal investigation by the IRS, FBI and Homeland Security into Bowyer and illegal sports betting. California is one of only 12 states where sports betting is unlawful.

“Mr. Bowyer never spoke with Ohtani. The only person he ever dealt with was Mr. Mizuhara,” said Bowyer’s attorney, Diane Bass, adding that they communicated through texts or verbally.“When heard Ohtani’s name was on one of the wire transfers for Mizuhara’s debt, he didn’t shy away from boasting Ohtani was his client because he thought it would bring him more business,” the source said.

In 2019, Bowyer formed Pick Enterprises, a Nevada-based corporation that lost its right to do business in California for failure to meet tax requirements, according to the California secretary of state’s website. The Post and the Los Angeles Times reported Bowyer was given $1.2 million in credit by Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut after his bankruptcy, but he failed to pay back the marker. The casino sued him in tribal court, according to the Post, and was still trying to collect on the debt in Orange County Superior Court in 2023.

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