There’s still much we don’t know about the betting scandal that has enveloped Shohei Ohtani, baseball’s golden boy and possibly the greatest to ever play the game.
What is his involvement with the illicit gambling involving at least $4.5 million that resulted in the firing of his longtime interpreter and friend? Did he help cover Ippei Mizuhara’s losses, as was first reported, or was he the victim of theft? Does the betting extend to baseball itself?
But for Ohtani’s millions of Japanese fans, one additional mystery should be how attitudes in the U.S. toward sports betting have shifted so quickly. Since a landmark Supreme Court decision in 2018 opened the door to this kind of gambling nationwide, the speed at which U.S. leagues have embraced it would put a Shohei fastball to shame.