Ippei Mizuhara changed his story regarding his gambling debt, and there is a possible explanation for that.
On Wednesday, news outlets reported that Mizuhara, who is Shohei Ohtani’s close friend and serves as his interpreter, had been fired by the Los Angeles Dodgers for alleged theft. Mizuhara allegedly stole millions from Ohtani and used the money to pay off gambling debts he accumulated.
The gambling was allegedly done through an illegal bookie based in Orange County, Calif. (where Ohtani’s former team the Angels are based) that was being watched by the federal government. The same illegal bookie had several baseball players as clients, including Yasiel Puig, who allegedly got into debt with the bookie.
However, a follow-up story by ESPN on the matter said that Mizuhara had changed his story to the media outlet. According to ESPN, Mizuhara spoke with ESPN on Tuesday about the situation and told the outlet that Ohtani knew about Mizuhara’s gambling problem. Mizuhara reportedly told ESPN that Ohtani paid the gambling debt on the interpreter’s behalf. When asked why Ohtani didn’t give the money directly to Mizuhara rather than to the bookie, Mizuhara said that was because Ohtani wanted to ensure that the debt was paid off and that Mizuhara didn’t gamble away that money.
Why would Mizuhara change his story?
There are cynics who theorize that Ohtani is the real gambler and that Mizuhara was just the middle man handling all of the baseball player’s activities. However, that allegation makes zero sense. Ohtani came to America with one intention: to become the best baseball player in the world. That’s what he spends his entire time and focus on, and he’s been successful at doing so. It would be completely inconsistent with what we know about his character and nature for him to be a gambling addict on the side.
Moreover, ESPN’s story says that the bets were placed on international soccer, the NBA, NFL and college football. Ohtani is from Japan. What does he know about the NFL or college football? Does he even know the rules of the sport? Contrarily, Mizuhara grew up in Southern California, and went to both high school and college in Southern California. Between them, who seems more likely to be placing bets on football?
So why would Mizuhara change his story? Maybe because he initially told ESPN the truth and later changed after Ohtani’s legal team informed them that story could still implicate Ohtani.
Just making a direct payment to an illegal bookie could be enough to implicate Ohtani or make him some sort of accessory to illegal activities.
Not only is wagering on sports illegal in California, but wagering through unapproved channels (e.g. a bookie) is also illegal. Additionally, though sports leagues have partnered with betting companies, leagues don’t like having players be tied to betting operations such as this one.
All of that could easily explain why Mizuhara may have changed his story to say he stole the money from Ohtani, which would absolve Ohtani from any knowledge or involvement in the crimes.
