Pod Insights Scamfluencers All Or Nothing: The Rise of Sports Betting | 134 About this episode In this episode we examine America’s favorite pastime: gambling. With loosening regulations, the explosion of online betting sites, and the full support of major sports leagues, sportsbetting has become ripe for scam. In this episode we meet an accountant who worked the system and bilked an NFL team out of millions, an interpreter who conned one of baseball’s greatest players, and a basketball player who bet against himself. In all three cases, the stakes are high and hopes are dashed when luck runs out.
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0:00 Sarah Hagi? Audible subscribers can listen to all our episodes of Scamfluencers ad-free right now. Join Audible today by downloading the Audible app.
0:14 Sarah Hagi? Sachi, I know you spend as much time watching TV as I do, and have you noticed that it seems like every single ad is for a chicken sandwich or sports betting? Yeah, it is ubiquitous. It is everywhere, and I have never gambled, but I feel like you might be a casino girlie or you're too scared. Um, I've actually never been to a casino. I don't think I'm afraid of it. I am afraid of being separated from my money. Yeah, I don't want to be separated from my money either. And the rise of sports gambling isn't only annoying us with constant ads, it's putting sports fans, professional leagues, and players in a difficult spot. We're going to get into all the scammy sides of this growing trend in today's episode.
0:56 Sarah Hagi? On November 13th, 2014, the top story in the sports world isn't about something that happened on a court or on a field. It's an op-ed in The New York Times written by the new NBA commissioner, Adam Silver. The piece is titled "Legalize and Regulate Sports Betting", and it opens with Adam stating, quote, "Betting on professional sports is currently illegal in most of the United States outside of Nevada. I believe we need a different approach." It might not sound like a mic drop, but it is. Up until this point, the commissioners of all the major US sports leagues have been on the same page. They're against the legalization of sports betting because they feel it threatens the integrity of the game. It can open the door to cheating, making the game seem unfair, corrupted, or scripted,
1:41 Sarah Hagi? and no one wants to tune in to see that. But Adam feels differently. He's the newest commissioner on the block. He's not even a full year into his post. He's in his early 50s and is tall, lanky, and bald. Honestly, just picture Jeff Bezos's nerdy brother.
1:58 Sarah Hagi? Adam is confident that regulators will step in and ensure that both players and fans have built-in protections. In his op-ed, Adam argues that "sports betting should be brought out of the underground and into the sunlight where it can be appropriately monitored and regulated." And right around the time the op-ed drops, he talks to Bleacher Report about why he's taking the stance.
2:18 Speaker 01 I do think that sports betting on a widespread legalized basis in the United States is inevitable. My view is that we need to participate in the regulatory framework that will be designed around our game.
2:31 Sarah Hagi? I don't think he's wrong, but this does also feel a little like, if you're gonna drink, I'd rather you just drink in my house. Yeah, I mean, it makes sense, but you kind of feel like there's something off about it. Yeah. Adam is using the same argument weed proponents have been making. Everyone's already doing it illegally. We might as well legalize it so we can regulate it and get a cut of the action. Around this time, the American Gaming Association estimates that in the previous year, people spent more than $130 billion on illegal sports bets. That's a lot of money the leagues are missing out on. Adam wants to change that. Just a day before the op-ed was published, he signed a deal with FanDuel, a sports betting site.
3:13 Sarah Hagi? As part of the deal, the NBA gets equity in FanDuel itself, so they are all the way in. Adam talks to Bleacher Report about how, in his mind, embracing sports betting would actually help the leagues prevent cheating.
3:26 Speaker 01 We have the responsibility for the integrity of the game, to ensure the competition is pure, to ensure that no one in the NBA family, whether that be at the league, a team, a referee, is in any way influenced by gamblers. Because the industry is not transparent, we can't do as good a job, I believe, as we could if it were all highly regulated.
3:49 Sarah Hagi? It turns out Adam was on trend. Just four years later, in 2018, the Supreme Court overturns a law prohibiting sports gambling, making it legal in more than half of US states. Soon, the leagues are raking in billions of dollars through sports betting. And while Adam says there will be regulations and protections, they only go so far. An explosion in betting scandals in recent years proves that the threats the other commissioners warned about are still out there. And there are new complications, too. In the world of sports, betting might end up being the most dangerous game.
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5:48 Sarah Hagi? From Wondery, I'm Sarah Haggie. And I'm Sachi Cole. And this is Scamfluencers.
6:01 Sarah Hagi? Today, rather than diving into one scam, we're looking into the recent trend of high-profile sports betting scandals. And while we're talking about three different scammers, they all operated in a similar shady environment that, in many ways, set them up to fail. There's the NFL accountant who stole from his team in order to place super risky bets, a personal assistant who sapped his pro athlete best friend's account to cover outrageous gambling debts, and a player who rode the bench to help his buddies land a bet. Each story shows how the system is ripe for corruption and that when there's money on the line, all bets are off. This is All or Nothing: The Rise of Sports Betting.
6:45 Sarah Hagi? It's fall 2018, and Amit Patel is walking into the stadium where the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars play. More than 60,000 blue seats around the football field, and a massive 360-foot jumbotron stretches out longer than the field itself. This is where Amit goes to work. Amit is 26 years old with chipmunk cheeks and dimples. He recently graduated from business school and is now the Jaguars' new coordinator of financial planning and analysis. Amit has struggled to get where he is today. Growing up, he and his family dealt with racial discrimination and verbal abuse for being Indian immigrants, and it only got worse after 9/11. Amit later claims that, just a month after the attacks,
7:28 Sarah Hagi? his uncle was murdered at a gas station in Texas by a white supremacist. Four years later, Amit's father died from a heart attack at age 46. Amit was only 13. In high school, Amit starts dabbling in online gambling. His gambling got worse once he arrived at Florida State University, where he also started drinking and smoking weed. He struggled with his schoolwork and switched his major from engineering to something more manageable: accounting.
7:57 Scaachi Koul? Only in a South Asian family
8:01 Scaachi Koul? is a shift from engineering to accounting considered like, it's basically a liberal art.
8:07 Sarah Hagi? He may as well be studying painting.
8:09 Scaachi Koul? He's like, taking an English class, like, whatever.
8:13 Sarah Hagi? Well, Amit managed to graduate, get an MBA, and even landed a job at Deloitte. But the whole time, he's gambling up a storm and landing himself in a ton of debt. In 2017, he started using the company Amex to place bets. Eventually, things got so bad, he had to ask his brother to co-sign a $16,000 loan to pay off the card before anyone at the company realized what he'd done. Somehow, no one found out about the loan. But Amit just can't stop gambling. By the time he starts working for the Jaguars, he's betting on anything even vaguely resembling a sport. Can you read what he later tells The Athletic about his habit? Yeah, he said, "The worst part is there's always a win around the corner,
8:57 Sarah Hagi? and so that's what you're always chasing."
9:01 Scaachi Koul? That's dark.
9:02 Sarah Hagi? I know. It's like, just gotta get back to that feeling of winning. No one at work has a clue that Amit has a gambling problem. He doesn't wear fancy clothes or flashy jewelry. He just seems like a friendly guy who's easy to talk to. And so, about a year later, when Amit's direct supervisor moves to a different department, Amit takes over his duties. And eventually, he's promoted to manager. Around this time, the Jaguars change how they track expenses. Employees start using virtual credit cards, or VCCs, which are supposedly more secure than a physical credit card. The finance department still reviews all transactions and improves them before any money leaves a Jag's bank accounts. The only problem is, by the time this new system goes into place,
9:47 Sarah Hagi? Amit is basically the only guy left in the finance department. A bunch of people got reassigned or promoted, and no one's been hired to replace them. Even the guy who's supposed to check Amit's expense submissions is gone. In other words, Amit has control over the entire process. That's a lot of responsibility for a guy in his mid-20s, even one without a gambling addiction.
10:11 Scaachi Koul? Don't you ever think sometimes when you think of like companies or infrastructure, money, or whatever, you're just like, there's just some guy running this. There's just one guy handling this stuff.
10:20 Sarah Hagi? It's so surprising how often you think there are a million people doing something and it's one guy.
10:25 Scaachi Koul? It's one guy who is in accounting because he couldn't just take a gap year.
10:32 Sarah Hagi? Well, during this time, Amit's gambling addiction gets worse. He keeps losing money, but he also can't stop himself from trying again and again, even though he's broke and maxing out his credit card. About a year into his new job, Amit is desperate for any way out of this hole. And one night, when he's drunk, he has an idea for how he might fix things, taking money from the Jaguars' VCC program. As he says later, quote, "The devil inside me is like, let me just deposit $25,000 from the card. I'll turn it into $50,000." It's classic addict logic. Amit goes through with it and places his first bet using the Jaguars' money. It'll end up being the biggest gamble of his life.
11:19 Sarah Hagi? In May 2018, while Amit is falling deeper into the throes of gambling addiction, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is anxiously awaiting a Supreme Court decision. Roger is in his late 50s with blond hair and gleaming white teeth. He's weathered many controversies during his 12 years as Commissioner. And while he's got plenty of critics, he doesn't bend to any of them. And there's one thing in particular he's never wavered on. He's very against legalized sports gambling. Can you read some remarks he made in 2012? Yeah, he said, "If gambling is permitted freely on sporting events, normal incidents of the game such as bad snaps, dropped passes, turnovers, penalties,
12:00 Sarah Hagi? and play calling inevitably will fuel speculation, distrust, and accusations of point shaving or game fixing." Yeah, he's right. Like, it's a house of cards. So if you think that these games can be bought, then what's the point of watching these games at all? The whole point of sports is that anything could happen. Yeah. And unfortunately for Roger, the Supreme Court is about to overturn the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, otherwise known as PASPA. It's the federal law that makes sports betting illegal in most states, and it's been in place since 1992. Some states have been pushing for it to get overturned because they stand to make millions. But Roger doesn't care about state budgets. He only cares about the integrity of his sport.
12:44 Sarah Hagi? But despite objections from some of the other major leagues, the court rules that PASPA is unconstitutional. Now, it's up to the states to decide if they want to legalize sports betting. It also paves the way for the rise of online sports books like DraftKings and FanDuel, which were previously restricted to bets placed in Nevada. Roger isn't happy about the ruling. But he's a Commissioner. He can make up his own rules for the NFL, and that's exactly what he does. The league decides that all personnel are prohibited from betting on any sports—professional, amateur, international, it doesn't matter. If it's a sport, employees like Amit cannot bet on them.
13:26 Sarah Hagi? The punishment for breaking these rules will be decided on a case-by-case basis. But Roger makes it clear there is one rule that will lead to automatic termination, no questions asked: betting on an NFL game. Yeah, that makes sense. This is like insider trading. Yeah. And yet, despite all this, the NFL under Roger doesn't waste any time making money from newly legal sports betting markets. The same year that the Supreme Court repeals PASPA, NFL teams bring in $35 million from gambling-related sponsors. And nearly three years later, in 2021, the NFL officially inks massive marketing agreements with several sportsbook companies, including FanDuel and DraftKings. And the other leagues all follow suit.
14:11 Sarah Hagi? Even if they opposed it initially, they're all too happy to rake in the betting profits. While NFL personnel are explicitly banned from betting on the league's own games, the temptation to gamble is more present than ever. It's widely available, it's advertised everywhere, and for employees like Amit, it might be too much to resist.
14:34 Sarah Hagi? It's now May 2022, about a year since the NFL formally teamed up with sports gambling companies. Amit's been working for the Jaguars for four years and stealing from them for about three. By now, he's flat-out using the VCC funds as his personal piggy bank. He's stolen millions of dollars from the team. And right now, he's using his money to party it up at Formula One's Miami Grand Prix with his girlfriend. In a later court filing, Amit alleges that his trip was reimbursed by FanDuel in an effort to keep him making huge bets on their site. Here are some of the photos of his trip that were later submitted by prosecutors. Sachi, can you describe them for us?
15:14 Scaachi Koul? Yeah, it is classic man in Miami. It's Amit in a lot of crisp white shirts and swim trunks. And he's at like a pool bar, and then a nightclub, he's at F1, he's in a hotel room, you know, he's on a boat. It looks like he's having a really nice time with money that isn't his.
15:36 Sarah Hagi? Yes, he is being hella bold about spending the Jaguars' money. At this point, he's basically a one-man show in the VCC department with no one checking his work. Each month, when he creates the team's expense spreadsheet, he fudges the numbers by duplicating expenses, moving future expenses into the current month, or just making up fake expenses altogether. As long as the numbers on his spreadsheet match the balances paid by the Jaguars at the end of the month, no one seems to bat an eye. Amit used to worry that someone would notice. Anytime someone scheduled a meeting with him, he was sure he was about to be caught. But he never was. So he's grown increasingly reckless with his spending, going far beyond just placing bets.
16:20 Sarah Hagi? And this is when Amit crosses the Rubicon into straight-up scamming. Because yes, he has a gambling addiction. But he also spends a Jaguar's money on some truly ridiculous things that have nothing to do with placing bets. For example, in the summer of 2022, he takes a golf trip to the Sea Island Resort in Georgia. Three months after that, he goes to London for the Jaguars overseas game, upgrading himself to business class and shopping at Chivanchi. Here's a sampling of just some of his other purchases, all made on the team's dime, if you don't mind reading them for us.
16:53 Scaachi Koul? Oh, it would be my pleasure. OK, so here's what he bought. A Florida condo valued at over $250,000, a Tesla Model 3 sedan and a Nissan pickup truck, a $95,000 Paddock Fleet Nautilus watch, $200,000 on golf memorabilia, including one of Tiger Woods's personal putters, and, why not, he also dabbles in cryptocurrency and NFTs. I would rather eat glass than be stuck in an elevator with a man who made these purchases.
17:25 Sarah Hagi? $200,000 on golf memorabilia is so stupid.
17:29 Scaachi Koul? Yikes.
17:30 Sarah Hagi? While miraculously, despite all his spending, Amit is still flying under the radar. His coworkers just assume he's got family money. Even with Amit's spending spree, most of the money he steals is going to online bets. But here's the thing. He is uniquely awful at it. He makes super risky and complicated bets and loses the vast majority of the time. Can you read what another gambler later told ESPN about Amit's gambling track record?
17:59 Scaachi Koul? Yeah, he said that Amit is "the biggest loser ever on FanDuel." He was legendarily bad.
18:07 Sarah Hagi? Oh, God. What a review. Biggest loser ever on FanDuel? There are a lot of losers on FanDuel. I cannot imagine.
18:15 Scaachi Koul? Yeah, it's not good.
18:16 Sarah Hagi? But the thing is, sports books love bad gamblers because they lose a lot of money. Amit later claims in a lawsuit that FanDuel gave him VIP status in 2021, and that an employee of FanDuel started communicating with Amit almost daily, including reaching out on days when Amit hadn't placed any bets to ask why. Amit also says that FanDuel paid for him to go to big-time sports events like that Formula One race in Miami, as well as the college football championship game and the Masters Tournament. Amit's already breaking the NFL employee rules by gambling on sports at all, but then he takes it a step further. In late 2022, he places two bets on Jaguars games,
19:00 Sarah Hagi? and it's all risk and no reason. He doesn't even have any insider knowledge that would help him guess how the games will turn out. But he bets $18,000 on the first game, and then a few hundred thousand on the second. He ends up losing both of them. He tries to withdraw money using a wire transfer to place bets through FanDuel, but it gets flagged, alerting FanDuel's anti-money laundering team. They ask him some questions about his funds, which he can't answer, and his FanDuel account gets suspended. Amit has passed the point of no return, and his luck is finally about to run out.
19:41 Sarah Hagi? A few months after Amit bets on the Jags, he's walking through the offices at their stadium about to meet with his boss. Amit assumes it's about a new project, but he quickly learns that they're actually going to a suite upstairs. Some guys from the NFL want to talk to him. As Amit follows his boss to the fourth floor, he glances over his shoulder and sees a group of HR and security people following them. His stomach sinks. This can't be good. As soon as he sits down, the NFL officials jump right in. They've gotten a tip from FanDuel. They want to know where Amit got the money to place his outrageous bets. Amit lies and says it's from family wealth and crypto.
20:22 Sarah Hagi? But the officials don't buy it, and they ask for access to his phone and computer to verify his story. He reluctantly hands over his devices and, eventually, his password for the VCC program, too. At this point, Amit knows there's no way out. After the meeting, the Jaguars fire him.
20:42 Scaachi Koul? I mean, it feels like getting fired is like the least of his concerns right now. He stole money.
20:47 Sarah Hagi? Oh, yes. And Amit frantically tries to make money to pay the team back by gambling. It gets so bad that his lawyer has to step in and force him to seek treatment. Just a few weeks after he's found out, Amit checks into an inpatient treatment center, where he's officially diagnosed with a gambling disorder and an addiction to alcohol. The FBI starts an investigation while Amit's in rehab. He cooperates, and, in December 2023, he pleads guilty to fraud and money laundering. He admits that he embezzled more than $22 million from the Jaguars via fraudulent VCC transactions.
21:26 Scaachi Koul? $22 million is so much money. I don't have enough desires for $22 million. I have to dream bigger, I think.
21:38 Sarah Hagi? Well, Amit is sentenced to six and a half years in prison. And he's also ordered to pay the Jaguars $21 million in restitution, plus give up his Florida condo and vehicles. But $21 million is a lot of money, and it's unlikely he'll ever be able to pay back the full amount he stole. He also recently filed a lawsuit against FanDuel in federal court, claiming the sportsbook exploited his gambling addiction and ignored its own protocols to keep pumping him for money. Amit is a shocking example of how sports betting can go very, very wrong. But he wasn't the only person violating the NFL's rules. People even closer to the game are getting caught up, too.
22:20 Sarah Hagi? In 2023 alone, 10 NFL players were suspended for gambling offenses. And the players aren't just susceptible to the allure of gambling. As our next story shows, they can also be at the mercy of the people closest to them.
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22:44 Speaker 05 The skirt or the magnum?
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23:01 Speaker 05 Interesting, but actually not technically British Scandal series material.
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23:11 Speaker 05 Okay, scandal siren going off.
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23:14 Speaker 05 And I'm Alice Levine.
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23:28 Speaker 04 This is the story of the Suez Plot.
23:31 Speaker 05 Follow British Scandal wherever you get your podcasts, or listen early and ad-free on Audible.
23:41 Scaachi Koul? Journalist Tristan Redman goes where no son-in-law should ever go. Deep into his wife's family history, digging up the cold case of who murdered her great-grandmother. Because, I should mention, he thinks the murderer might actually be the beloved family patriarch. For the best bingeable series like Ghost Story, listen to the Audible True Crime Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
24:09 Sarah Hagi? Around the time Amit Patel starts working for the Jacksonville Jaguars, all the way across the country in California, another man is landing his dream job. Ipe Mizuhara is a Japanese interpreter in his early 30s with a round face and a Beatles mop-top haircut. He was born in Japan but raised in Southern California. He later went back to Japan to work as an interpreter for English-speaking players in the Japanese baseball league. In December 2017, Ipe learns that the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim have just signed Shohei Ohtani. Shohei is 23 years old, and he's one of the most exciting baseball players in the world. What makes him special is that he's good enough to be a starting pitcher, and he's an amazing hitter.
24:54 Sarah Hagi? For any non-baseball fans out there, that's super rare. They are very specialized skills. Some people think Shohei should already be considered one of the greatest players of all time. He's also very cute.
25:07 Scaachi Koul? He has a big, thick neck, and I want to swing from it like a tree trunk.
25:11 Sarah Hagi? Okay, that's enough, that's enough. Well, another thing about Shohei is that he barely speaks English, so he needs an interpreter. Ipe worked with Shohei four years ago, back when Shohei was a 19-year-old rookie in the Japanese Pro Baseball League. So Ipe reaches out and offers to be his interpreter again. And in early 2018, the Angels hire Ipe as Shohei's official translator. Shohei also employs Ipe directly to serve as his de facto manager and personal assistant. Ipe drives with Shohei to work, and they go over scouting reports together. He carries Shohei's enormous water jug and his luggage, and brings Shohei's iPad everywhere so he can study hitters and pitchers.
25:55 Sarah Hagi? They sit together at Shohei's locker and in the players lounge, and Ipe hangs out in the dugout during the games. During off-hours, they reportedly play video games. The two are described as having "a brotherhood" and going together like peanut butter and jelly.
26:10 Scaachi Koul? Hmm, that's sweet, and something tells me that it will not last.
26:15 Sarah Hagi? Yeah, I mean, Shohei trusts his translator so much that Ipe ends up handling all of the star's general business and personal matters outside of baseball. And Shohei needs someone to handle these things because he's all baseball all the time. He lives in an apartment on the other side of the Angels stadium parking lot, and he even travels with a specific mattress so he can get the best night's sleep possible on the road. He doesn't think about anything besides being the best baseball player in the world. This includes dealing with his finances. So Ipe sets up a new bank account for Shohei's baseball paychecks, an account that Ipe has full access to. Shohei trusts that Ipe will manage these paychecks for him,
26:57 Sarah Hagi? just like he trusts his agents to manage his multimillion-dollar endorsement deals. There's a whole system, and it works for Shohei. At least, it does for the next three years. But this is also around the time that the Supreme Court overturns PASPA, and the explosion of sports gambling is about to hit both Ipe and Shohei hard. It's now 2021, about three years since Ipe started working for Shohei and the Angels, and Ipe is attending a poker game in San Diego. You don't really know what Ipe's gambling history is before this point. His past is pretty murky. One source says that Ipe enrolled at a school for casino dealers at one point, although he never graduated. But regardless, it's probably fair to say
27:42 Sarah Hagi? he had some interest in and exposure to gambling before this poker game. At the game, Ipe meets a guy named Matthew Boyer. Matthew is in his late 40s, divorced with short buzzed hair and tomato-hued skin that makes him look angry in photos. He was a failed exterminator before becoming a commodities trader. And now he works as a bookie. But while tons of states have legalized sports betting by this point, California hasn't, so Matthew operates an illegal website. This doesn't seem to give Ipe too much pause, though, because in September of 2021, he starts placing bets with Matthew. He bets on things like the NFL, the NBA, and soccer,
28:25 Sarah Hagi? and almost immediately, he starts losing money. And Sachi, get this: Ipe doesn't pay Matthew directly. He arranges payment through Matthew's longtime associate, Ryan Boyadjian. And if you recognize that name, it's probably because he's engaged to one of the Real Housewives of Orange County.
28:45 Sarah Hagi? Ryan's been working with Matthew for two decades, and they seem to be partners of sorts in this illegal sports gambling outfit. After around one month of betting through Matthew, Ipe is in deep. And then he starts panicking. He's gambling money he doesn't have, and it's time to pay up. So to cover his own ass, Ipe makes an alarming decision. He wires money straight out of Shohei's bank account. And he quickly makes it a habit. The transfers get larger as the months go on. Soon, he's sending $15,000 at a time, then $50,000. On multiple occasions, he asks Matthew for more credit. This is an important distinction to note.
29:27 Sarah Hagi? Legal sports betting requires you to pay upfront for wagers, but illegal bookies will accept bets on credit. They just need to know that the better can pay up if they lose. It seems that Ipe uses his connections to Shohei to prove that he's good for his bets, the implication being that Shohei will help him out if need be. So with this in mind, Matthew keeps giving him more and more credit. In reality, Ipe is not asking Shohei for help. He's just taking it. Ipe updates the contact information for Shohei's bank account with his own phone number, plus a burner email that only he controls. And in February of 2022, Ipe calls Shohei's bank and impersonates him
30:09 Sarah Hagi? so he can wire $300,000 to his bookie. And with the false comfort of Shohei's bank balance, it seems Ipe simply can't stop. He keeps betting over the next year. And then, in June of 2023, he wires half a million dollars to Matthew. Four days later, Ipe texts Matthew asking for another bump, saying, "I have a problem. Lol." Adding LOL at the end of a terrifying text immediately makes it okay. So he's figured it out. He figured out the key. It's smart to be casual with a bookie, in my opinion. Yeah, they love that. And meanwhile, Shohei is way too busy being one of the best players in baseball to notice anything.
30:55 Sarah Hagi? But there's another problem that Ipe didn't foresee. Federal investigators are narrowing in on Matthew. In October 2023, agents raid Matthew's house and find evidence of his illegal sports betting operation. But they don't arrest him yet. We don't know why, but there's some indication that Matthew immediately starts cooperating with authorities by turning on his clients. Either way, Matthew keeps working with Ipe to place bets. A month after the raid, Ipe gets a text from Matthew. At this point, Ipe owes him a ton of money. Even after stealing millions from Shohei, Ipe hasn't been able to keep up with all his payments.
31:35 Sarah Hagi? Of course, he's also putting down more bets before he's paid off his unsettled ones, so it's a vicious cycle. Matthew's been chill about it, until now. He wants his money, and he's ready to turn up the heat on Ipe. Will you read the text Matthew sends him? Sure. He says, "It's 2 o'clock on Friday. I don't know why you're not returning my calls. I'm here in Newport Beach and I see Shohei walking his dog. I'm just gonna go up and talk to him and ask how I can get in touch with you since you're not responding. Please call me back immediately." Oh, this would give me a heart attack if I got this text. This is like, from a movie. Yeah, it's bad.
32:15 Sarah Hagi? While Ipe somehow manages to hold Matthew off for a little longer, and Shohei is none the wiser. Shohei's also a little preoccupied with contract negotiations. In December 2023, the Los Angeles Dodgers sign him to a 10-year, $700 million contract. Shohei was already considered a once-in-a-generation player. But this contract makes him a household name even amongst non-baseball fans. He's now the face of the sport. But with more attention comes more scrutiny. And Ipe's going to feel the brunt of that more than anyone.
32:53 Sarah Hagi? Three months after Shohei signs his massive new contract, ESPN investigative reporter Tisha Thompson is tracking a story. Tisha's in her 40s with blonde hair and a big smile. She's been at ESPN for seven years, covering stories about sports and power. She's a Princeton grad with a Peabody Award, and she's got a lead on a story that's so shocking, it could become the biggest headline across all of sports. Federal investigators are looking into the bookie Matthew Boyer, and they've found at least two wire transfers of $500,000 going to Boyer from Shohei Ohtani's bank account. So obviously, Tisha is trying to figure out if baseball's biggest star is embroiled in a gambling scandal. Tisha reaches out to Shohei and his team,
33:38 Sarah Hagi? and she's transferred to Ipe. So Tisha starts asking him questions, and then Ipe just folds. He must know that the hammer is about to come down, and he wants to try to get out in front of it. He immediately confesses to getting himself into gambling debt to the tune of $4.5 million. And Ipe tells her that he had asked Shohei for help paying off these debts. That is an outrageous request of anybody, but especially someone who is in the MLB. Yeah, I mean, it's very scandalous, and Tisha can't believe what she's hearing. Even if Shohei's not the one gambling, helping to pay off his friend's debts could have major repercussions,
34:21 Sarah Hagi? especially if Ipe's betting on baseball. Just like in the NFL and the other leagues, MLB players are strictly forbidden from betting on their own team and sport. And if what Ipe says is true, Shohei could be banned for life.
34:39 Sarah Hagi? While Tisha's doing her due diligence, the Dodgers are in South Korea playing a game overseas. And Ipe knows he needs to do some damage control. So once the game is over, he addresses the clubhouse. He confesses that he's a gambling addict and that he's gotten deep into the hole, but that Shohei has graciously paid off his debts. The craziest part is that Shohei is sitting right there while Ipe is saying all of this. But Ipe is speaking in English, so Shohei is not totally following. Still, after Ipe's speech, Shohei senses that something's off. He pulls Ipe aside and demands to know what's going on. And again, Ipe folds.
35:20 Sarah Hagi? He tells Shohei the truth, but he also asks his old friend for a favor. Could Shohei just go along with the story that he paid off Ipe's debts for him? This is so scary. Shohei is completely reliant on this guy. Like, he doesn't totally know what's going on without his translation, and then it turns out he's lying to him. Yeah, this is someone he kind of considers family at this point. So Shohei must be in a total state of shock at first. Like, is he really hearing this? And then I imagine he quickly shifts to feeling very angry and betrayed. He refuses to go along with Ipe's lie, and that leaves Ipe scrambling. By this point, Tisha's caught wind that Ipe may not have been telling her the full truth.
36:05 Sarah Hagi? When she calls him back for a follow-up, it goes much differently than their first interview. Here's Tisha talking to ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith on First Take, describing the call.
36:15 Speaker 06 I said, "Did you lie to me during that interview?" And he says, "Yes." And through a series of questions that I then ask him, he says Otani never knew about the gaming debts, and that Otani didn't make the payments. The big question, Stephen A., is how did those payments get made?
36:35 Sarah Hagi? Tisha publishes her bombshell report on ESPN, detailing her confounding back and forth with Ipe. Shortly after that, Shohei issues a statement alleging that he's the victim of a multimillion-dollar theft. The Dodgers immediately fire Ipe and tell him to find his own way home from South Korea. He flies commercial back to L.A., where Homeland Security agents are waiting for him. They force him to hand over his phone, and he knows it's over. He's finally been caught. But Shohei still needs to clear his name. It's not just about protecting his legacy, it's about being able to continue playing the sport he loves.
37:15 Sarah Hagi? Shohei is absolutely rocked by Ipe's betrayal, someone he considered one of his closest friends and most trusted partners. His interpreter, the person who's supposed to make things clear for him, intentionally left him in the dark so he could take advantage of him. And to make matters worse, there's now rampant speculation that Shohei was actually the one gambling and that he is using Ipe as a fall guy. So to get his side of the story out, Shohei holds a press conference. Here's his new interpreter, Will Iretin, translating what Shohei has to say.
37:50 Speaker 06 I never bet on baseball or any other sports or never have asked somebody to do it on my behalf. Ipe has been stealing money from my account and has told lies.
38:02 Sarah Hagi? Oh, this is so upsetting. I'm very upset about this, Sarah. I know. It is blood boiling. After the press conference, Shohei hands his phone over to federal investigators. He is notoriously private. He even got married without anyone knowing. And when the news did come out, he asked everyone to leave his wife alone, referring to her as a "normal Japanese woman." But he wants to prove he has nothing to hide. So he sits down with investigators for two full days and describes his relationship with Ipe. That's depressing to have to waste your time because you seem guilty by association. Yeah, I remember when this was in the news and just seeing so much speculation that Shohei was involved.
38:46 Sarah Hagi? But he is officially cleared of any wrongdoing and Major League Baseball breathes a sigh of relief that they don't have to ban their biggest superstar. Meanwhile, Ipe pleads guilty to bank fraud and tax fraud and faces a possible 33-year maximum sentence. He allegedly stole almost $17 million from Shohei, all of which he's required to pay back in restitution. Prosecutors say that Ipe lost around $41 million in total and made 19,000 bets, averaging 25 a day. Reportedly, none of them are on baseball, so he did follow one rule at least. And Shohei hasn't let the scandal with Ipe hold him down. This year, Shohei won the World Series with the Dodgers.
39:33 Sarah Hagi? But for some people, the drama of this saga is just beginning. The most important people, obviously, Real Housewives. When the Shohei news broke, so did the news that Jen's fiance, Ryan, was involved with Ipe's bookie. In fact, at their engagement party, Ryan introduced Matthew as his money launderer. What a funny joke. In front of the cameras, Ryan denied being a part of Matthew's bookie business. At the reunion, Jen said that Ryan reached out to the FBI and cooperated with their investigation. She denied that he was knowingly involved. But fellow housewife Emily Simpson explained what the feds laid out in their indictment of Matthew.
40:13 Speaker 06 That money went into Ryan's account. It was between 15, 16, 17 million. It was in Ryan's name. Ryan moved the money into marker accounts and casinos, specifically Resorts World and Pechanga. And then he cashed that money in for chips and that they gambled.
40:32 Sarah Hagi? Ryan has immunity in the case, but Real Housewives only believe in street justice. I'm sure we'll be hearing more about the scandal in future seasons.
40:43 Sarah Hagi? Next, we'll head back to the NBA to see how Commissioner Adam Silver is doing. Unlike his baseball counterpart, Adam's about to face his absolute worst nightmare. A player involved in illegal betting.
41:02 Speaker 05 I'm Gemma Whelan, and in the new season of The Spy Who, we tell the story of the original femme fatale, the spy who was Mata Hari. A famous dancer turned World War I secret agent, accused of seducing Allied officers to uncover their plans. But was she a temptress or a scapegoat for French failures? Follow The Spy Who now, wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also listen to the full season of The Spy Who Was Mata Hari, early and at free on Audible.
41:32 Speaker 06 Dr. Seuss's Cat in the Hat and Fish are back for a whole lot of wonderfully whimsical fun. What happens when you switch bodies with your best friend? Discover a caveman frozen in ice? Or make an alien so angry he threatens to destroy the planet? Find out in season two of the Cat in the Hat podcast. The Cat and Fish are traveling the world in the great catastrophic cacophony cruiser, meeting genies, clown professors, cave trolls, and extraordinary characters along the way. With clever wordplay, imaginative rhymes, original songs, and stories celebrating curiosity, empathy, and creative problem solving, every adventure brings something new to discover.
42:15 Speaker 06 It's a world of wonderful words, big imaginations, and plenty of heart for the whole family. Listen to the Cat in the Hat podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Audible subscribers can binge all 20 episodes early and ad-free right now.
42:39 Sarah Hagi? It's April 2024, and NBA Commissioner Adam Silver's vision has become reality. Sports betting is legal in 38 states, and it's become a multi-billion dollar industry. The NBA still has partnerships with FanDuel and DraftKings, and Adam recently announced that the NBA's streaming service will offer in-app betting for fans as they watch games live. But Adam's vision isn't going perfectly. Adam said he wanted betting brought out of the shadows so leagues could keep a closer eye on it and catch any shady business that threatens the sport. And in early 2024, that's exactly what happened. Adam gets reports of some weird bets that were placed on a 24-year-old Toronto Raptor named John Tay Porter.
43:23 Sarah Hagi? Jontay's a good player, but not a star. In fact, he's not even the best basketball player in his family. Jontay's older brother, Michael Porter Jr., won the NBA championship last year with the Denver Nuggets. In a January game where the Raptors are playing against the L.A. Clippers, Jontay is projected to score less than six points and get fewer than five rebounds and two assists. Truly terrible numbers, and yet, people are placing bets that he's gonna do even worse. Sure enough, Jontay steps onto the court, gets three rebounds, one assist, and then he leaves the game claiming he's re-aggravated an eye injury. By leaving the game, everyone who bet that he'd suck wins big.
44:07 Sarah Hagi? I've never heard a more Toronto story in my life. Yeah, bet on yourself, but that you fail. That is in every history book about this city. Isn't that what Fred Van Vliet said? It's word for word what he said, yeah. Well, then, in a game two months later, it happens again. Tons of people place bets that Jontay will play so bad, he won't even score seven points or get more than five rebounds in the entire game. Mean, right? But once again, he takes to the court and plays just three minutes before he claims he's too sick from food poisoning to keep going. All the people gambling on the poorest possible performance win big again. One better wins more than $1 million. The amount of money for such a weird bet
44:52 Sarah Hagi? on a not-great player sets off alarm bells. It just doesn't make sense, not unless you have some insider information that maybe this player won't actually play the entire game. It's so suspicious that the bet gets frozen by the sportsbook site before the better can withdraw his winnings. Isn't it so crazy that everybody was like, "Yeah, this guy sucks, but people think he sucks too much"? Yeah, it's just too convenient how much he's sucking. After freezing the bet, the gambling site alerts the NBA. Adam orders an investigation, and soon, league officials discover that Jontay did, in fact, break the rules, and he did it in three different ways. First, the league finds that Jontay texted with the gamblers he knew and gave them confidential
45:36 Sarah Hagi? information to help them place bets. Second, Jontay pretended to be hurt or sick to influence the outcome of these bets. And third, the NBA said Jontay himself bet on basketball. Just like all the other sports leagues, basketball players are expressly forbidden from betting on their own sport. But Jontay tried getting around that by using someone else's account. The NBA investigation found that he made at least 13 bets worth about $54,000 from January through March. He didn't bet on any Raptors games that he played in himself, but he did bet on some where he rode the bench. And then, in what has become a recurring theme in this episode, it turns out that Jontay had looming gambling debts.
46:20 Sarah Hagi? He owed money to one of the gamblers who pressured him to leave the games early. Can you read what Jontay texted the gambler about what he thought would happen if he didn't cooperate? Yes. Jontay texted, "Then it's up. And you hate me, and if I don't get you AK by Friday, you're coming to Toronto to beat me up." Sarah, you have sent me this text 1,000 times. It's really funny. I mean, it's just like, yeah, and then you're gonna come beat me up, and I get it. Yeah. Also, getting beat up in Toronto is doubly embarrassing. There are so many layers of humiliation to this. Well, now, Adam has a choice. This isn't an employee embroiled in a scandal like Amit or E-Pay. This is an actual player, and Adam knows he has to make an example out of him so that
47:04 Sarah Hagi? other players don't dare repeat the same mistakes. So even though he's championed the legalization of sports betting and orchestrated countless partnerships and deals, essentially creating the exact environment that could tempt a young player like Jontay, Adam hands down the harshest punishment he can. He bans Jontay from the NBA for life. As of this recording, Jontay has pled guilty to a felony charge and faces sentencing in a few weeks. The federal judge in his case blocked him from going to play basketball overseas. For Jontay, sports betting was the end of the line.
47:42 Sarah Hagi? On an individual level, Amit, Ipe and Jante all acted like typical scammers. But it feels like the real scam behind the rise in sports betting is how pro sports leagues and gambling sites have gone into bed together and how they profit by getting users addicted. For so long, the leagues called sports betting an existential threat. But as it turns out, there's a price tag on existential. To better understand how we got to this point with sports betting and what the consequences are, we talked to an expert. Dr. Timothy Fong is a psychiatrist and the co-director of UCLA's Gambling Studies Program. He points to the Supreme Court's repeal of PASPA as a real turning point for sports betting.
48:24 Sarah Hagi? That, paired with how easy it is to gamble and borrow money right from your phone, has made betting incredibly widespread. Plus, gambling ads are everywhere. Dr. Fong explains how, for those who are predisposed to addiction, the way the industry is marketed can be really problematic.
48:42 Scaachi Koul? If you watch any of the gambling ads, invariably, they celebrate the culture of winning, celebrate the culture of money and materialism and spectacular success. And the thing that I think a lot of folks crave, which is wealth and freedom, without the other implications of, you know, there's this other dark side and downside to it as well.
49:06 Sarah Hagi? This unprecedented access has another drawback, one that we saw to various degrees with our three scammers. And that's that most of it is done online without ever having to see another person in real life. Dr. Fong explains why this is an issue.
49:22 Scaachi Koul? On an app, there is no casino hose, there is no person to say, "Hey, slow down. This is too much." There is no friend over your shoulder, there's no checks or balances. So, of course, that drives, A, for some folks, excitement, because this is great. I can do whatever I want. For others, un. Checked over and over.
49:42 Sarah Hagi? Not everyone is just gambling for fun either. A lot of people are looking to make a quick buck, and they think betting on sports is a way to do it. According to Dr. Fong, this is extremely prevalent in the younger generations. Young people often tune into sports purely for the betting opportunities and not simply for the love of the game. A recent study suggested that people are actually looking at sports gambling as a legit alternative to investing, even if they're struggling financially. In the end, it almost always makes their financial situation worse. But as Dr. Fong explains, people believe they're the exception to the rule, so they keep trying.
50:20 Scaachi Koul? What do they say? I have a problem with luck. I got screwed by the ref. I have a system that can't lose. It's just not working right now because the wins aren't right, but it'll turn around. All those are folks who haven't understood that what they have is an addiction, not some other strange explanation.
50:37 Sarah Hagi? So where does that leave us now? Well, Dr. Fong argues that we have to weigh the pros and cons of the gambling and sports industries and decide whether we're benefiting from this new landscape or if the harm outweighs any good. He wants to see new developments, like alerts on the apps that signal if you're engaging in risky betting behavior. He also wants to see more muted advertisements for gambling rather than the celebrity-driven ones that are constantly running, as well as tighter regulations for how gambling is messaged to people under 21. One thing that's clear is that sports betting is here to stay. Dr. Fong says it's unlikely we'll ever get rid of it, so we have to learn how to manage it.
51:16 Scaachi Koul? Imagine if I put forth in front of Congress, I want to prohibit sports betting app. I want to shut these things down. It'd be impossible to do. Same thing with prohibition. We learned that that doesn't work. Instead, what works is prevention, education, and questioning what it is.
51:30 Sarah Hagi? This is about the entertainment combination that we really want.
51:35 Sarah Hagi? Sachi, I feel like you have probably never thought about sports gambling this much. And I want to know, has your opinion changed at all? Or was it more or less kind of what you'd assumed?
51:47 Scaachi Koul? No, I kind of think all gambling is really bad. There just isn't any real upside to me. And I recognize that I engage in a lot of addictive behavior that also doesn't have huge upside. But I still think there's a big difference between having a glass of wine here and there and then spending money on the weird parasocial relationship you have with athletes and hoping that they make you rich.
52:09 Sarah Hagi? Yeah, I think it's just not a positive thing for society at all.
52:14 Scaachi Koul? Yeah.
52:14 Sarah Hagi? And you still can't drink in the middle of the day at work, but you can gamble on your phone from anywhere, anytime, and spend any amount of money. And I don't think it was supposed to be like that. Yes, and of course, the people in the story, they are all adults who made choices in their lives, bad choices. But so many doors were open to them to move through life, making these poor choices, taking these risks. And these guys weren't even great at gambling, and they just kept doing it and risking these careers they worked really hard for.
52:49 Scaachi Koul? I mean, do you think that these leagues should continue to try to regulate it? Or should they just get out of it entirely?
52:55 Sarah Hagi? I don't know what could happen, to be honest. They can't ban it now. You know, I feel like it's too...
53:02 Scaachi Koul? Hard to put the genie back in the bottle.
53:04 Sarah Hagi? Yes, I do think there should be stricter rules around how it's advertised. It's crazy to be watching TV and see Jamie Foxx doing a sports betting ad, you know?
53:16 Scaachi Koul? Yeah, that's the other thing. It has become really mainstreamified in a way that a lot of other things in this vein haven't. I grew up in Alberta where there are casinos, right? Like, there are a lot of them. But the kinds of celebrities that were advertising for those casinos or who performed in those casinos were not mainstream celebrities making millions of dollars. It was like some random musician, and you would laugh at it.
53:39 Sarah Hagi? Yeah, and you know, I feel like there's this argument about the lottery or gambling or casinos or whatever, and how the taxes on it help us do X, Y, Z. But it is considered, to a lot of people, a regressive tax that... Primarily preys on people who are already financially not doing well. So it just becomes more taxation for people who don't have the means to be gambling in the first place.
54:06 Scaachi Koul? Yeah, I mean, the other thing about the apps too is that they make the apps all look like you're playing Angry Birds. It doesn't even feel like it's real money.
54:13 Sarah Hagi? It's numbers on a screen. It's not real.
54:15 Scaachi Koul? Yeah, it doesn't look or feel like you're actually dealing with your cash and your capital. It feels like you're playing like farmland or something.
54:24 Sarah Hagi? Yeah.
54:24 Scaachi Koul? Like you're in another version of reality, but it's real money and there's real damage at the other end of it. I guess that's what I've learned is never trust an app.
54:33 Sarah Hagi? And it's funny because I think it plays into this thing we all kind of feel for certain, whatever our vice is like, I'm actually the smart one who'll know when to stop.
54:42 Scaachi Koul? Right, of course.
54:43 Sarah Hagi? The arrogance of it. Sorry, but I'm built different.
54:47 Scaachi Koul? Well, I would say if you are listening at home and you feel like you want to start sports gambling, instead you should just give your money to me.
54:55 Sarah Hagi? Bet on us.
54:57 Scaachi Koul? No, just give it to us. I don't want to do anything. I don't want to be tied to a outcome. Just give it to me. What's the difference? You're spending it anyway.
55:05 Sarah Hagi? I do think so. It's like, you know, you hear people throwing away money all the time. It's like, you could have given that to us.
55:11 Scaachi Koul? Just give it to me.
55:12 Sarah Hagi? Okay, well, you keep saying me and I'm saying us.
55:14 Scaachi Koul? I'm talking about myself. Give it to me. I have no ethics about where the money comes from. That's the difference. You actually care. I don't care. Give me the money.
55:22 Sarah Hagi? Fine, give her the money. I give up. I can't fight this.
55:25 Scaachi Koul? See, it's not hard. Just got to twist some arms.
55:32 Sarah Hagi? Follow Scamfluencers on the Audible app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to all episodes of Scamfluencers ad-free by joining Audible.
55:42 Sarah Hagi? This is All or Nothing, The Rise of Sports Gambling. I'm Sarah Haggy. And I'm Sachi Cole. If you have a tip for us on a story that you think we should cover, please email us at That's [email protected] . We use many sources in our research. A few that were particularly helpful were The Athletics: Feeding the Demon Inside: An Ex-Employee Tells How and Why He Stole $22 Million From Jaguars by Katie Strang, ESPN's Dodgers Fire Shohei Ohtani Interpreter Amid Allegation of Massive Theft by Tisha Thompson, and The New York Times's In Latest Gambling Scandal, Some See Glimpse of Sports' Future by Kevin Draper and Tanya Ganguly. And a special thank you to Dr. Timothy Fong of UCLA's Gambling Studies Program. Alex Burns wrote this episode.
56:27 Sarah Hagi? Additional writing by us, Sachi Cole and Sarah Hagie. Eric Thurm and Olivia Bryle are our story editors. Backchecking by our associate producer, Lexi Peery. Sound design by James Morgan. Additional audio assistance provided by Augustine Lim. Our music supervisor is Scott Velasquez for Fries on Sync. Our managing producer is Desi Blaylock. Our senior managing producer is Callum Flus. Jeanine Cornolo and Stephanie Jens are our development producers. Our other associate producer is Charlotte Miller. Our producers are Julie McGruder and John Reed. Our senior producers are Sarah Enni and Ginny Bloom. Our executive producers are Jenny Lauer Beckman, Marshall Louie, and Erin O'Flaherty for Wondery.
57:20 Scaachi Koul? In January 1995, 18-year-old Krista Pike and two friends lured a classmate, 19-year-old Colleen Schlemmer, to an abandoned steam plant and killed her. At just 20 years old, Pike was sentenced to death. 30 years later, on September 30, 2026, the state of Tennessee tried to execute her and failed. I'm Candace DeLong, former FBI profiler and host of the podcast Killer Psyche, where we go inside the minds behind the most shocking crimes. In our latest episode, we take you inside the case of Krista Pike. The brutal crime, the childhood of abuse, three decades of appeals, and the night an
58:03 Scaachi Koul? execution went terribly wrong. Follow Killer Psyche wherever you get your podcasts. Audible subscribers can listen to all episodes of Killer Psyche one week early and ad-free right now. Join Audible in the Audible app or by subscribing on Apple Podcasts.
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