Award-winning journalist Mariana van Zeller, who interviewed convicted bookie Matt Bowyer on her new podcast, disdains sports gambling.
The bookie who placed multiple illegal bets for Shohei Ohtani’s translator was discovered during a federal probe into a Las Vegas casino.
That casino, Resorts World Las Vegas, agreed to a $10.5 million fine from the Nevada Gaming Commission for illegal gaming activities on Mar. 27 of this year, according to ESPN.
Separate investigations by the FBI and Major League Baseball cleared Ohtani, the Los Angeles Dodgers star who is now playing in the World Series, but not his Japanese translator.
The interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, allegedly took $17 million from the athlete’s account to cover previous bad gambling debts.
The bookie who placed his bets, Matt Bowyer, was a guest earlier this week on The Hidden Third, a new weekly podcast that focuses on the one-third of the global population involved in the black markets of drugs, guns, gambling, and other illicit activities.Translator sentenced
“Matt was pretty open that Ohtani’s interpreter was betting with him,” said podcast host Mariana van Zeller, “but he does not believe Ohtani was the person doing the betting. He did say, though, that even Jeff Bezos would have noticed if such a huge sum disappeared from one of his accounts.”
In February 2025, Mizuhara was sentenced to 57 months (4 years and 9 months) in federal prison for illegally transferring some $17 million from Ohtani’s bank account to pay off gambling debts. Dismissed by the Dodgers upon discovery, Mizuhara was ordered to pay that sum in restitution to the World Series star. He is also expected to be deported to Japan after getting out of jail four years from now.
Bowyer is also incarcerated – sent to federal lockup shortly after talking to van Zeller on the air.
“Matt explained to me what it felt like to bet $4 million on a football game that he lost,” she said. “At half-time, he was losing so he decided to double down plus add another $400,000. His team turned the game around. He told me that every time he won, it was like no other experience. Better than sex, better than having a child. The amount of money we’re talking about is just crazy.”
A 49-year-old Portuguese national who came to the U.S. at age 25, van Zeller attended Columbia journalism school, covered 9/11, and then moved to the Middle East to study Arabic. That sparked her awareness of black markets – and her future career.
