Baseball’s official opening weekend has come and gone, and while the games on the field have already provided plenty of electricity, the biggest buzz around the sport has nothing to do with runs, hits, or errors.
Los Angeles Dodgers designated hitter and two-time American League MVP Shohei Ohtani was going to be talked about no matter what after signing his historic, 10-year, $700 million contract this offseason. No one expected that we would be talking about gambling more than Ohtani’s incredible talent.
Ohtani’s now-former translator, Ippei Mizuhara, stands accused of stealing $4.5 million from his longtime friend to cover gambling debts to Matthew Bower. Bower is a Los Angeles-area bookie who is being monitored by the FBI.
But before that story, Ohtani supposedly gave his friend the money willingly to help Mizuhara get out of the hole.
Major League Baseball, for its part, says it has opened its own investigation into what happened.
So many questions remain unanswered, many testing the boundaries of common sense.
The biggest, as far as baseball is concerned, is whether or not Ohtani made bets through an illegal bookmaker and if so, did he make any bets on baseball?
No sport has had a more hardline stance against betting than baseball. League Rule 21 states that “any player, umpire, league or team official, or employee will be declared ineligible for one year if they bet anything on a baseball game in which they have no duty to perform, meaning a game they aren’t playing in.
Any player betting on a game they are involved in means a lifetime ban.
Think Pete Rose and “Shoeless” Joe Jackson.
Baseball and major sports in this country have to be prepared for a gambling problem.
Sports gaming is now legal in 38 states, Washington DC, and Puerto Rico and more accessible than ever. In the six years since the industry expanded beyond the deserts of Nevada, legal operators have reported more than $25 billion in gross revenues.
According to a report by NPR, Americans spent $120 billion on sports gambling in 2023.
In 2022 those same operators spent nearly $300 million in advertising to make sure you knew that they were open for business.
MLB, the NFL, NBA, and NCAA are all getting major boosts from the money from sportsbooks. Try watching a game without being reminded that you can bet on daily fantasy, in-game props, or whatever you like…and that there’s a line of credit out there just waiting to help you do so.
Gambling isn’t going anywhere. As long as there has been something to bet on, people have made bets.
But gambling and sports used to be neighbors, not partners. We’ve come a long way from the lines being printed in the back of the sports section. The point spread is moving across your screen 24/7, and that’s whatever screen you want it to be.
The Ohtani case, as well as that of Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter, should be a wake-up call for everyone involved in the sports world.
At least when players operate through legal bookmakers, there are betting integrity divisions that notify leagues of potential issues.
However, if Ohtani or people associated with him are making bets through illegal bookies, then a criminal element enters that could compromise the integrity of the game even more so than it has been in the eyes of an increasingly doubtful public.
If every pitch, error, strikeout, or poorly-timed stolen base is viewed with skepticism, then the slide from sports to sports entertainment becomes almost impossible to stop.
In the short term, MLB needs to take a stand now. Against illegal betting and Ohtani’s inconsistent story. Shohei Ohtani should be suspended at the very least for his involvement in paying a debt and not reporting the situation to the commissioner’s office or the police.
If more is discovered, such as him betting on baseball or the Dodgers, then he has to be banned from the game as stated in Rule 21.
The solution to balancing baseball in betting won’t be an easy one, but the decision to suspend Ohtani should be.