Paula Lavigne and Shwetha Surendran, ESPN

THE SPREAD OF sports betting poses new legal risks for college athletes in states where gambling is allowed, but an ESPN analysis has found that most university athletic departments in those states typically don’t address the new legal pitfalls.

Using public records requested by the Student Press Law Center, ESPN reviewed sports-betting policies at 24 Power 5 public universities in states that had mobile sports betting by the end of 2023 and found that only four schools had policies that explicitly warn student-athletes of potential legal consequences.

While college athletes have long faced losing NCAA eligibility for betting on sports, the legal risks are new since the advent of legalized betting six years ago. State laws now often subject athletes to greater punishment — and may even criminalize — wagering by athletes.

It isn’t clear if the universities address the potential legal consequences at in-person sessions with athletes because 21 of the 24 schools contacted by ESPN declined to comment or did not respond to multiple emails asking about their educational efforts around gambling.

The apparent lack of information in policies could leave athletes unaware that engaging in the same betting activity as their non-athlete fellow students could leave them in a legal bind. A 2023 NCAA survey of 18- to 22-year-olds found that 58% have participated in at least one sports betting activity. Six percent said they had lost more than $500 on sports betting in a single day.

University of South Dakota football player Clayton Denker, a member of the school’s student-athlete advisory committee, said the athletic department emphasized the ban on sports gambling at the beginning of the school year and stressed that violations could bring “severe consequences” and a loss of eligibility.

However, Denker said, he had no idea that betting while a college athlete could be a felony in South Dakota.

“They should lead with that,” Denker told ESPN. “If [athletes] were to understand this affects the rest of my life, not just my sport, then I think they would take it more seriously.”

The issue of regulatory and criminal consequences has become more prominent in the past two years as athletes and coaches — to whom the ban and new laws also apply — from at least five schools in three states have been criminally charged.

“It seems to me to make sense that student-athletes are educated on their various state laws,” said Mark Hicks, the NCAA’s managing director of enforcement. He added that the job is better left to individual schools than to the NCAA, although the organization would support more consistency. “As much as we can advocate for consistent practices across state lines, that’s really helpful.”

A “majority” of the responsibility for educating athletes about state law does fall on the school, said John Carns, the senior associate athletic director for compliance at the University of Louisville.

“Student-athletes are only thinking about, probably their eligibility, but there are other legal consequences to it that they’re going to fall into,” he said. “And that’s not a great way to start your adult life.”

Any criminal conviction could have long-term repercussions for student-athletes, said Julie Sommer, executive director of The Drake Group, a nonprofit that advocates for reform in college sports. A conviction would possibly have to be disclosed to future employers or graduate schools and could affect future opportunities, such as taking the bar exam, she said.

“The penalties are really severe for college athletes, [such as] loss of scholarship,” Sommer said. “And the breaking of state and federal laws, that’s something that follows them for the rest of their lives.”

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IN THE 38 states with legalized sports betting, all but two specifically restrict athletes from betting on sports, according to research compiled for this story by Legal Sports Report. Six states — Kentucky, New Jersey, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia — have “clear criminal penalties” when an athlete or other prohibited person places a bet, according to the research.

Among those states, the definition of crime varies.

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Tisha Thompson, ESPN

David Fletcher, a former Los Angeles Angels infielder currently playing for the Atlanta Braves‘ Triple-A affiliate, and a friend of his, who also played in the minor leagues, both bet on sports with the Southern California bookmaker who took wagers from Shohei Ohtani‘s longtime interpreter, according to multiple sources detailing the activities.

Fletcher, who was Ohtani’s teammate from 2018 to 2023 and has been described as one of his closest friends in baseball, placed bets with the bookmaking operation of Mathew Bowyer, sources said. Ohtani’s former interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, also bet with Bowyer and eventually stole nearly $17 million from the Japanese superstar to feed his addiction, according to prosecutors.

Fletcher’s close friend, Colby Schultz, who played in the Kansas City Royals‘ system from 2018 to 2020, placed bets on baseball, including on Angels games that Fletcher played in while he was on the team, sources told ESPN.

Fletcher bet on several sports but not baseball, sources said.

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David Purdum, ESPN

One in three high-profile athletes receive abusive messages from individuals with a “betting interest,” and more than 540 similar messages, including death threats, were received by men’s and women’s college basketball players during championship tournaments in March, the NCAA said in a release Friday.

The NCAA looked at athletes participating in sports that attract the most betting interest — football and basketball, among others — and found that online abuse is widespread. Signify, an artificial intelligence company and NCAA partner, covered 1,000 Division I men’s and women’s college basketball players, 64 teams, more than 200 coaches and 120 NCAA game officials during March Madness. The analysis, which is part of an NCAA initiative aimed at combating online abuse and harassment, found 4,000 posts or comments that were confirmed to be abusive or threatening during March Madness.

The NCAA said the data showed women’s basketball players received approximately three times more overall threats than men’s players and that 15-25% of abuse directed at players, coaches and officials who are involved in the most popular college sports was related to betting.

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David Purdum, ESPN

A MONTH AFTER the NBA was hit by a gambling scandal involving alleged manipulation, officials at major sports leagues want change on betting menus and betting limits offered at U.S. sportsbooks, according to interviews with league and gambling industry sources.

The NBA’s Adam Silver, the first major U.S. league commissioner to publicly support legalizing betting, told ESPN on Saturday that having regulated sportsbooks handle the betting action — instead of local bookmakers and offshore gambling sites — better protects the league’s integrity and provides “an improved ability to detect aberrant behavior.”

“Still,” Silver wrote in an email, “we believe that sports leagues should have more input into the terms and types of bets offered and that further collaboration is needed among industry stakeholders regarding what is appropriate.”

On April 17, Silver banned Jontay Porter from the NBA, accusing the former Toronto Raptors player of violating the league’s gambling policy. Porter’s “cardinal sin,” according to Silver, came in a March 20 game against the Sacramento Kings, during which he allegedly limited his participation to impact lucrative bets that were placed on his statistics at multiple sportsbooks. He played just 3 minutes before leaving, citing illness.

The Porter case, which is being reviewed by authorities in both Canada and the U.S., is the first to include formal allegations of manipulation since states began legalizing sports betting. It sent a “shiver up the spine of all the leagues,” a professional sports league executive who asked that their name not be used told ESPN.

The sports betting industry says the system is working because illicit activity is being identified, but the leagues and critics wonder if the new market is causing the issues in the first place.

“Everybody is waiting for the big scandal,” said Declan Hill, a professor at the University of New Haven who studies international match-fixing. “One of the leagues is going to be hit by some enormous scandal.”

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IN THE WAKE of the Porter controversy, league and industry sources told ESPN the NBA was angry that sportsbooks allowed such large amounts of money to be wagered on an obscure player. Among the most suspicious bets was an $80,000 six-leg, same-game parlay placed with DraftKings consisting of under bets on Porter’s statistics against the Kings that would have won $1.1 million.

The NBA and its partner sportsbooks — which include FanDuel, DraftKings and BetMGM — are discussing changes to betting menus to combat future corruption, ESPN previously reported. Those changes could include prohibiting betting on players signed to two-way contracts between the G League and the NBA, like Porter. More extreme measures, such as not allowing bets on the “under” on a player prop, have also been considered.

The other major leagues are also weighing the financial rewards from this new revenue stream against the inherent risks that come with certain bet types and large betting limits.

The NFL has discouraged sportsbook operators from offering betting on events such as missed field goals and penalties. The NHL asks its partner sportsbooks not to offer wagers on statistics that are difficult to determine and could include some subjectivity, such as the over/under on number of hits by a player, and the NCAA has successfully lobbied individual states to ban betting player props involving college athletes.

Since the start of the season, Major League Baseball has been surveying what types of bets are offered on its players and games. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred told the Associated Press Sports Editors that baseball has been paying close attention to prop bets from the beginning, singling out wagering on the first pitch of games as worrisome. A source familiar with MLB’s position on the betting market, though, told ESPN that the league’s concern is centered as much, if not more, on how much can be wagered on such prop bets.

Tisha Thompson, ESPN

Ryan Boyajian, a current cast member of Bravo’s reality TV series “The Real Housewives of Orange County,” is the bookmaker’s associate to whom Ippei Mizuhara wired money to pay his gambling debts, multiple sources with knowledge of the investigation told ESPN.

Mizuhara is accused of stealing $16 million from Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani to feed what Mizuhara described to ESPN as a gambling addiction. His arraignment has been rescheduled to May 14.

As first reported by ESPN, and later detailed in the criminal complaint against Mizuhara, Mathew Bowyer, the illegal bookmaker under investigation, told the interpreter he could pay his gambling debts by wiring money into the account of Bowyer’s associate, known in the complaint as “Associate 1.”

That associate is Boyajian, who used the account with Bowyer for their real estate projects, according to the sources. Boyajian, 47, and Bowyer, 49, have been close friends and business associates for nearly 20 years. When Bowyer declared bankruptcy in 2011, court records show Boyajian loaned him $245,000.

Steven Katzman, Boyajian’s criminal attorney, told ESPN that Boyajian is working with federal authorities.

“Because there is an active investigation and Ryan is working with the authorities, he can’t confirm or deny what is going on,” Katzman told ESPN. “He is not a bookmaker or a sub-bookie.”

Multiple sources said Boyajian has received immunity in return for his testimony.

The U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California could not be reached for comment. The IRS Criminal Investigation’s Los Angeles office declined to comment.

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David Purdum, ESPN

In the aftermath of the Jontay Porter betting scandal, the NBA and its partner sportsbooks are discussing changes to betting menus to combat similar occurrences in the future, sources familiar with the talks confirmed to ESPN.

Among the changes that have been discussed is prohibiting betting on players on two-way contracts between the G League and the NBA, sources said. More extreme measures such as not allowing bets on the “under” on a player prop have been considered, sources said, but there are concerns that restricting wager types could push bettors into the unregulated betting market.

The NBA has commercial contracts with sportsbooks such as BetMGM, DraftKings and FanDuel that give the league some influence on what types of wagers are offered.

Gambling industry site Legal Sports Report first reported the talks between the NBA and sportsbooks.

“Since states began legalizing sports betting in 2018, we have worked closely with betting operators as well as integrity monitoring organizations to put in place essential monitoring and reporting systems so that we are best positioned to identify potential betting anomalies and to act to protect the integrity of our game,” an NBA spokesperson said in a statement to ESPN.

DraftKings, FanDuel and BetMGM did not respond to ESPN’s request for comment.

Commissioner Adam Silver banned Porter from the NBA on April 17. Porter has not commented publicly on the allegations.

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Tisha Thompson, ESPN

The series of $500,000 payments Ippei Mizuhara sent from Shohei Ohtani‘s bank account to an illegal bookmaking operation were forwarded to California and Las Vegas casinos, where the money was deposited in gambling accounts, converted to playing chips and later cashed out to pay the bookie, multiple sources with direct knowledge of the operation told ESPN.

The description of what happened to Ohtani’s money sheds new light on the ongoing federal probe that drew global attention after his interpreter, Mizuhara, was accused of stealing $16 million from the Los Angeles Dodgers slugger to feed what he has called a gambling addiction.

Mathew Bowyer, the California bookmaker who took Mizuhara’s bets, was a frequent customer at Las Vegas casino Resorts World. The sources told ESPN that Mizuhara paid his losses to Bowyer’s associate, who forwarded the money to his own “marker” accounts at Resorts World and Pechanga Resort Casino in Southern California. The men then withdrew chips from the marker account, gambled with them, and if they won, cashed out.

Bowyer, 49, lost $7.9 million at Resorts World from June 2022 to October 2023, according to multiple sources. After Bowyer’s home was raided by federal agents on Oct. 5, he was dubbed a known bookmaker and banned from entering casinos throughout the United States, according to sources with direct knowledge of the ban.

Neither Bowyer nor his associate has been named in any indictment unsealed to date.

Attorneys for both Bowyer and his associate declined to comment.

Multiple sources told ESPN that Resorts World is at the center of what federal authorities described in an affidavit as an investigation into “illegal sports bookmaking organizations operating in Southern California, and the laundering of the proceeds of these operations through casinos in Las Vegas.” Twelve people have been charged or convicted to date, and two Vegas casinos have agreed to pay fines, according to the affidavit. Resorts World was served a federal subpoena last August that sought, among other things, documents related to its anti-money laundering policies.

A spokesperson for Resorts World told ESPN the casino does not comment on ongoing legal matters. “Resorts World Las Vegas takes any suggestion of violations seriously and is cooperating with the ongoing investigation,” the spokesperson said.

Resorts World opened its doors to the public in 2021 under the leadership of Scott Sibella, who was MGM Grand’s president from 2011 until he left for Resorts World in 2019. Sibella pleaded guilty to charges that, as president of MGM Grand, he failed to file suspicious activity reports about another Southern California bookie, Wayne Nix.

Nix, a former minor league baseball player, awaits sentencing after pleading guilty to operating an illegal gambling business and filing a false tax return. His clients included NBA legend Scottie Pippen, former MLB All-Star Yasiel Puig and Maverick Carter, the longtime friend and business manager of NBA superstar LeBron James.

The Nevada Current reported that Resorts World received a federal grand jury subpoena in August seeking “documents relating to the Company’s Anti-Money Laundering policies, Know Your Customer practices, policies and practices relating to extensions of credit, comps or other benefits, use of promotional chips, and other customer transactions.”

In September, Resorts World fired Sibella for “violating company policies.”

On Oct. 5, federal agents raided Bowyer’s home, seizing computers, cell phones, jewelry, luxury handbags, a money counting machine, cash and chips from several casinos, according to search warrant documents obtained by ESPN.

Federal agents, according to the documents, were authorized to seize records that could show evidence of Bowyer committing federal crimes, including transmission of wagering information, operation of an illegal gambling business, structuring to evade reporting requirements, and laundering the proceeds of an illegal gambling business.

Multiple sources told ESPN that Bowyer, who has worked as a commodity broker and owns a Brazilian jiu-jitsu studio, got into the bookmaking business more than 20 years ago. It became his primary source of income soon after the 2008 financial crisis, when he befriended bookmaker Owen Hanson, the former USC football player convicted of running an international drug trafficking, gambling and money laundering operation. Hanson went to federal prison on a 21-year sentence in 2017 but had his sentence reduced and was released in March.

Unlike sportsbooks, where customers have to front money, bookies allow people to bet on credit. Mizuhara, who was one of more than 600 bettors with Bowyer’s book, ran up a debt of $40.7 million, according to federal authorities.

In an interview about the Mizuhara investigation, which included several text exchanges between the interpreter and Bowyer, Tyler Hatcher, the special agent in charge at IRS Criminal Investigation in Los Angeles, told ESPN that Bowyer’s behavior was “typical of bookies.”

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Paula Lavigne and Adam Rittenberg, ESPN

More than two dozen athletes who were based in Iowa filed a federal lawsuit Friday alleging that state criminal investigators violated their constitutional rights by using geolocation software to track activity on their cellphones as part of a widespread sports wagering inquiry that resulted in criminal charges and the loss of NCAA eligibility.

At issue in the 47-page lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa is whether the state’s criminal investigators needed a search warrant before using a program from third-party company GeoComply to find athletes — including many who were under 21, the legal betting age in Iowa — and conduct searches to examine their online wagering activity.

The plaintiffs are 26 current and former athletes: 16 from the University of Iowa, nine from Iowa State and one from a community college in central Iowa. Thirteen played football, six wrestled and the other seven played baseball or basketball.

“The lives of these young men have been disrupted and altered in way[s] still yet to be fully seen,” Matt Boles, Adam Witosky and Van Plumb, the attorneys for the plaintiffs, said in a statement. “It is our hope that through the civil action we can help these young men put their lives back on track and gain a measure of justice for the violation of their rights.”

The lawsuit alleges the state; its Department of Public Safety, Division of Criminal Investigation; and its agents violated the athletes’ civil rights by using the GeoComply software without a warrant to identify phones using mobile sports betting apps within Iowa and Iowa State athletic facilities.

The DCI declined to comment when reached Friday about the lawsuit.

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ESPN News Services

The NFL has reinstated five players who were suspended for the 2023 season for violating the NFL’s gambling policy.

Washington Commanders defensive end Shaka Toney and four free agents — defensive end Rashod Berry, wide receiver Quintez Cephus, safety C.J. Moore, and defensive end Demetrius Taylor — were reinstated.

Defensive back Isaiah Rodgers, who also was suspended last year for at least the 2023 season, wasn’t reinstated Thursday. His situation remains under review, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported Thursday. Both Rodgers and Berry were with the Indianapolis Colts at the time of their suspensions, and both were released by the team last year.

Rodgers later signed with the Philadelphia Eagles, who hold his rights if he gets reinstated.

Cephus and Moore were with the Detroit Lions at the time of their suspensions and both were released by the team. Cephus had 37 catches for 568 yards and four touchdowns with the Lions in three seasons. Moore appeared in 56 games for Detroit from 2019-22.

Toney is a 2021 seventh-round pick who has 1.5 sacks with Washington in two seasons.

Taylor was a free agent at the time of his suspension.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

David Purdum, ESPN

On May 14, 2018, just after 10 a.m. ET, the United States Supreme Court struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992, the federal statute that had restricted legal betting to primarily Nevada for 26 years.

It was a landmark decision for two of America’s favorite pastimes: sports and gambling.

States wasted little time launching — and taxing — legal sports betting markets, and professional leagues quickly formed partnerships with the bookmaking companies that would be taking bets on the games. Six years later, 39 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have legal betting markets, and bettors have already wagered more the $330 billion with the new state-sponsored sportsbooks. But as the betting has increased, so have the controversies that come from gambling.

In the past two years, dozens of professional and collegiate athletes and coaches have been suspended or fired for gambling violations, and at least one bettor has pleaded guilty to obstruction charges related to a college baseball betting scandal. In early 2024, a pair of investigations were launched involving suspicious betting on Temple men’s basketball and on prop wagers involving Toronto Raptors reserve center Jontay Porter. On Wednesday, the NBA banned Porter for life after its investigation revealed he had disclosed confidential information to bettors, limited his participation in at least one game while he was with Raptors and bet on NBA games while playing in the G League.

The gaming industry and sports leagues say the legal system is working, with the increased visibility of the betting that is taking place helping spot anomalies. But the incidents — including players betting on games they’re involved with — persist.

Meanwhile, the underground betting market that has existed in the U.S. since sports have existed continues to thrive, with unlicensed bookmakers offering credit and attracting some high-profile clientele who might be hoping for more anonymity. Ippei Mizuhara, former interpreter for Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani, was fired in March for using such a bookie. Last week, Mizuhara turned himself in to authorities after prosecutors alleged he stole more than $16 million from Ohtani’s account.

California and Texas, the two largest states, have yet to legalize sports betting, so the U.S. market has plenty of room for growth, and there is no shortage of betting interest from the public. How big the American betting market gets is anyone’s guess. Perhaps the safest bet, though, is that there will be more controversies. 

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