Who’s Mathew Bowyer, the Bookie Who Practically Took the Vegas Strip Down with Him?

Final up to date on: November 24, 2025, 07:19h.

A picture-conscious highschool scholar from the poorer facet of Southern California’s San Juan Capistrano, Mathew Bowyer ran poker video games out of his dad and mom’ storage. The earnings allowed him to purchase a brand new pickup truck, outfitted with booming subwoofers, to maintain up together with his high-school classmates.

He additionally elevated his pocket cash by betting on sports activities together with his rich pals — as a result of he additionally acted as their bookie.

However a crossroads arrived when he discovered himself, at 19, dealing with fatherhood together with his high-school sweetheart. Neither of his facet hustles, nor his full-time job busing tables for a Mexican restaurant, would reduce it anymore.

One of many restaurant’s regulars, a person who owned a commodities agency, took a liking to Bowyer and supplied him a job. The $300,000 he earned as a dealer earlier than the age of 25 might need satisfied another person that that they had discovered their life’s calling.

However Bowyer noticed the job merely as a stepping stone to increasing his sports activities betting enterprise. Certainly, his rich new co-workers simply grew to become his new purchasers.

Strip Tease

Bowyer had change into the proprietor of one of many largest unlawful sports activities betting networks within the US by 2018, and he was hiding in plain sight. (Picture: Mathew Bowyer)

Bowyer’s twenty first birthday journey to the New York-New York on line casino resort yielded a $28,000 blackjack win. Although he misplaced greater than he gained in subsequent visits, he noticed the Strip not simply as leisure however as a recruiting floor.

VIP hosts, charity-event invites and comped suites and airfare gave him entry to ever extra prosperous gamblers. By 30, he give up brokerage work, having transformed pals and colleagues into “brokers” who earned commissions for bringing in bettors.

By 2018, Bowyer’s facet enterprise had grown into one of many largest unlawful sports activities betting networks within the US, dealing with tens of millions in wagers from 700 gamblers nationwide.

A Fateful Assembly

Shohei Ohtani speaks together with his interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, previous to being launched by the LA Dodgers at Dodger Stadium on December 14, 2023. (Picture: Meg Oliphant/Getty Pictures)

On September 8, 2021, Bowyer — by then a remarried 46-year-old father of 5 — attended a high-stakes poker recreation in San Diego hosted by LA Angels gamers and workers. There, he met the person who would set off his downfall.

Ippei Mizuhara was the interpreter and shut pal of Shohei Ohtani, the baseball phenom who was then in his fourth season with the Angels. What stood out to Bowyer about him have been the telephone  calls he made between poker palms. He was obsessively inserting bets on soccer video games.

So Bowyer approached, pouring on the appeal and providing him free credit score via his web site. Over the subsequent 2½ years, Mizuhara positioned no less than 19,000 bets through AnyActionSports.com, totaling $325-$326 million ($142 million in wins, $183 million in losses).

New Child on the Boulevard

In February 2022, Bowyer visited Resorts World for the primary time. The primary new resort on the Las Vegas Strip in a decade, it had opened a yr earlier than on the very website the place mob affiliate Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal as soon as skimmed the sportsbook earnings from the Stardust.

As the brand new child on the block, Resorts World lacked the database of high-rollers constructed and maintained for many years by its company neighbors. So, in response to a grievance that may finally be filed by the Nevada Gaming Management Board, the property wooed bookies into its on line casino, the place their soiled earnings have been transformed into clear earnings through chips for desk video games.

Over two years, Bowyer made 80 visits, shedding tens of millions whereas cultivating purchasers.

On March 20, 2024, ESPN and the LA Occasions broke the information {that a} checking account owned by Ohtani — who had simply signed the biggest contract within the historical past {of professional} sports activities ($700 million) with the LA Dodgers — had wired tens of millions to Bowyer.

Bowyer admitted noticing just a few of Mizuhara’s bets coming in through Ohtani’s  account, however had hoped the 2 pals have been betting collectively.

At first, the authorities — the IRS, Division of Homeland Safety, MLB and Nevada regulators — suspected a corruption scandal rivaling the 1919 Black Sox. However as soon as Mizuhara’s theft was confirmed, the main target shifted to a smaller corruption scandal.

An modification to the US Financial institution Secrecy Act in 1985 required Nevada casinos to vet the supply of funds for any wager over $10,000, and to file suspicious exercise studies for any wager over $5,000 {that a} on line casino “is aware of, suspects, or has motive to suspect” originated from unlawful positive aspects.

Regulators later alleged that Resorts World, Caesars and MGM knowingly allowed Bowyer to lose tens of millions at their tables from 2017 to 2024 regardless of unverifiable funds. They stated his presence uncovered systematic negligence throughout the Strip, the place casinos prioritized income over compliance.

Resorts World in the end agreed to pay $10.5 million, MGM Resorts $8.5 million and Caesars Leisure $7.8 million to settle the costs towards them with out admitting guilt.

Bowyer pleaded responsible in August 2024 to unlawful playing, cash laundering and submitting a false tax return. He was sentenced to 12 months and someday — which he started serving on October 10, 2025 on the Federal Correctional Establishment in in Lompoc, Calif. — plus $1.6 million in restitution.

The case is now considered as a turning level in Nevada gaming historical past — proof that company Las Vegas has behaved much more just like the mobbed-up Stardust than it favored to current itself.