Mathew Bowyer, the illegal bookie who accepted bets from Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter, has said he has no regrets about running his gambling business. He spoke candidly following his release from prison earlier this year.
“I regret some of the poor choices I made – but I don’t regret it because it made me who I am today,” he told NBCLA this week.
In the end, he was sentenced to just over a year in prison after pleading guilty to running an illegal gambling business, money laundering, and filing a false tax return. He served seven months and was released in March this year.
Prison Taught Important Lessons
The time in jail was a drastic shift in the lavish lifestyle he enjoyed while raking in as much as $1 million a month from his illegal gambling business. He said his operation was one of the biggest in the world.
It was a challenge to go from “butlers to private jets to Rolls-Royces, all these fancy things material-wise, to all of a sudden you’re eating what I consider to be dog food.”
When asked what the most important lesson he learned from his time in prison, Bowyer replied, “It’s truly being grateful for what we do have in life and appreciating my health, my family, and time. I mean, time is the most precious gift we all have.”
When he was sentenced last year, he said he was remorseful, but in this week’s interview, he said he would do it all over again.
“I would never want to put my wife and kids through that part of the experience. That was very difficult. But I’d be lying to you – and I don’t lie, I like to tell the truth – that I would not do it all over again,” he admitted.
Bowyer Now Faces Tax Bill & Gambling Ban
As part of the conditions of his release, Bowyer cannot gamble for two years. Nevada added him to its black book in April, a list of 39 individuals who are forbidden from ever setting foot in a casino.
“They served me, saying I no longer could set foot on any property in the state of Nevada that has a gambling establishment license of any format. For life,” he said.
Several casinos had to pay hefty fines for allowing Bowyer and other illegal bookies to gamble at their properties, including:
- Caesars $7.8 million
- Resorts World Las Vegas $10.5 million
- MGM Resorts International $8.5 million
- Wynn Resorts $5.5 million
Court filings showed Bowyer moved at least $18 million through casinos. He is now facing a $9 million tax bill from the IRS. He ran his illegal gambling operation for 25 years, generating substantial profits.
One of his clients was Ippei Mizuhara, the interpreter who stole over $17 million from the baseball star. In total, Mizuhara lost $41 million gambling with Bowyer. He still owes $23 million, which is unlikely to be paid now that he is serving time behind bars. Mizuhara was given a 57-month sentence for his crimes.
The government did not reveal how much money it believes Bowyer generated from his business over the years. Since his release from prison, he has been living with his family in San Juan Capistrano, Orange County.
Rebranding as Motivational Speaker
Before going to prison, Bowyer published a book detailing his story. Recalibrate is “a raw, high-stakes memoir about the rise and reckoning of a man who built an empire on risk.”
Since his release, he has been working on a second book and has also pivoted to giving motivational speeches, focusing on the risks of gambling.
“I’m advertising that you can rebrand yourself. You can come back in life. What’s wrong with a person coming back? Everyone loves a comeback story,” he said.
He has launched his own website, selling his “story of ambition without boundaries,” as well as his books and motivational-speaker services.
His new venture is more rewarding, he claimed. “The grind and all the work I’m putting in now is actually more fun than it was before, because there’s so much more purpose behind it, and in life, when you have purpose, you actually have, in my opinion, a winning hand.”
He plans on writing an apology letter to Mizuhara in prison, citing the poor choices in their lives that led to their jail time.
