Category Archives: Gambling

Ippei Mizuhara agreed Wednesday to plead guilty to a pair of charges in connection with the gambling scandal involving Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani.

Mizuhara, who was Ohtanis longtime interpreter, was arrested earlier this spring in a massive and complicated scandal that left him facing up to 30 years in prison. Mizuhara allegedly stole nearly $17 million from Ohtani to cover Mizuhara's illegal gambling losses, which totaled more than $40 million.

Mizuhara agreed to plead guilty to two charges bank fraud and subscribing to a false tax return on Wednesday. The first charge carries a maximum sentence of up to 30 years in federal prison, and the second could add up to three years.

Mizuhara is expected to enter his guilty plea officially next week.

Mizuhara turned himself in to authorities officially last month after he was accused of stealing millions from Ohtani. He allegedly made 19,000 wagers with an alleged illegal bookie between December 2021 and January 2024, which averages out to about 25 bets per day. In total, Mizuhara lost more than $40.5 million.

Mizuhara was Ohtanis financial point person beginning when the star moved to the United States in 2018. Mizuhara reportedly helped Ohtani set up a bank account, and he impersonated Ohtani and later changed information in order to start funneling money from the account. Ohtanis agent reportedly talked to him exclusively through Mizuhara, too.

Mizuhara reportedly transferred weekly $500,000 payments into the account of an associate of Mathew Boyer, who is also under federal investigation. That associate then transferred the money into accounts with Resorts World, a Las Vegas casino, and Pechanga Resort Casino in Temecula, California. The scandal is reportedly part of a much larger operation in which 12 people have already been charged and convicted and multiple casinos have paid fines.

The associate in question, according to ESPN, was Ryan Boyajian, who is a cast member of "The Real Housewives of Orange County." Scott Sibella, the former president of Resorts World and MGM Grand, is set to be sentenced in federal court Wednesday in Los Angeles, too, after he pleaded guilty in connection with another sports gambling charge.

Ohtani has denied knowing anything about the scandal and said he learned about it when everyone else did. Major League Baseball has released a statement recognizing that authorities view Ohtani as a victim in all of this. Ohtani, one of the best hitters in baseball so far this season, is continuing to play with the Dodgers in the wake of the scandal.

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Shohei Ohtani's former interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, agrees to plead guilty to 2 charges in gambling scandal - Yahoo Sports

The headlines are heading to the television screens.

Lionsgate Television is developing a scripted series based on the gambling scandal involving Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtanis former interpreter, the entertainment company announced Thursday.

The show will follow Ohtanis rise, including his record-setting 10-year, $700 million contract with the Dodgers in December and the news months later that Ohtanis then-interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, allegedly stole $17 million from the baseball icon to pay off gambling debts.

Los Angeles fired Mizuhara and he turned himself in to federal authorities in the wake of the allegations. Mizuhara recently agreed to plead guilty to charges of bank fraud related to the scandal, the U.S. Department of Justice announced. Mizuharas arraignment is scheduled for May 14.

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Tony Award winner Scott Delman and sports reporter Albert Chen will produce the series.

With a strong track record of creating daring, boundary-pushing series, Lionsgate Television is the perfect partner to bring this unbelievable story to the screen, Delman in a release. In addition, Alberts extensive sports journalism background will enable us to connect the dots to make sense of the startling turn of events weve seen play out on the world stage.

Delman is known for his work on the television series Station 11 and for serving as a producer on Broadway hits The Book of Mormon and Death of a Salesman, among others.

Chen wrote a book on sports gambling, Billion Dollar Fantasy, and served as a senior editor at Sports Illustrated, where he covered baseball.

This is major league baseballs biggest sports gambling scandal since Pete Rose and at its center is its biggest star, one that MLB has hitched its wagon on, Chen said in a release. Well get to the heart of the story a story of trust, betrayal and the trappings of wealth and fame.

(Photo: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)

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TV series about Ohtani ex-interpreter gambling scandal in works - The Athletic

Theres no greater testament to the emotional premium of watching live sports as they happen than the fact that ESPN, the biggest sports media enterprise in human history, continues to operate at least somewhat like it did in the past even as the rest of television struggles to find its way forward. As other television networks flail and sweat, ESPN goes on showing games and padding them with advertisements, to highly profitable effect. Its an efficient, diversified business that nets a ton of passive engagement and which can be maintained for comparatively little money; their streaming service, ESPN+, is profitable, for Christ's sake, and those things are never profitable!

This is why it seemed so strange, late last year, when ESPNs corporate parent, Disney, reportedly looked into selling the network. A media conglomerate was once a series of diversified interests, operating on vertically integrated channels that afforded access to the places people consume mediamovie theaters, broadcast networks, cable channels, retail outlets. These concerns made stuff, sold it or put ads in it or both, profited, and then held the money in the air while everyone cheered. Tech has altered this, as both a matter of distribution and one of return on investment.

A profitable company is not necessarily seen as a successful company anymore, because a companys value in the eyes of investors is no longer based on profit. It is based on the perception that the company will be more profitable in the future, which drives speculative valuation, which in turn creates more value for an investor than the piddly five-year projection type value that normal investors have to settle for. The modern media corporation is effectively a hedge funda collection of speculative assets that are expected to grow and grow, year after year. And to feed the dream of fully scalable infinite expansion, in every direction, forever, even a good business like ESPN needs to find new revenue streams.

A popular family streaming service, for example, might not be profitable, but it can sell itself to investors as a future utilitysomething all parents will someday need to have, and so also a money printer that will never run out of ink. The entire sports industry is captive to this pursuit, and to the investor-class fantasy of endless, boundless growth. The model they have landed on is selling you cigarettes through your phone. The ESPN Bet app launched in 17 states in November of 2023.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, (DSM-V), represents broad psychiatric consensus on what does and does not constitute a mental disorder in human beings. For the most part, that consensus has pooh-poohed the idea of behavioral addictions. There is no official addictive statute for sex and love, or internet use, or shopping, or compulsive eating. Cultural consensus might see these things as addictive in a portion of the population, but science isnt yet ready to make that call.

The one exception to this is gambling, which the DSM-V does recognize. About 1 percent of Americans have a gambling disorder; the consequences of problem gambling are terrible, doubly so in a country with a dogshit social safety net. Problem gambling devours time and money, alienates people from their family and friends, and creates debts that can take a lifetime to repair, even after seeking treatment. A study from 2019 found that problem gamblers commit suicide at 15 times the rate of the general population.

Addiction by Design, the sociologist Natasha Dow Schlls apocalyptic treatise on machine gambling addicts living in Las Vegas, is among other things a study of how gambling addiction can wreck a persons internal reward systems. As you get further and further down the hole, Schll writes, the rewards from winning become smaller, and are replaced instead by a compulsive pursuit of more risk, followed by a sunken, numbed out state where you abandon personal affect and are absorbed into the machines demands.

What makes someone susceptible? Problem gambling is higher in men and boys and people with other kinds of addiction problems. Much of it appears to stem from neurological quirks; people with Parkinsons, for instance, are notably susceptible. Of course, if even the most susceptible persons lifestyle doesnt facilitate the hobby, this would all be moot. That is why gambling companies have worked so hard and spent so much to make gambling so hard to avoid, because there is a lot of money to be made off people with this itch.

It is both factual and not quite the whole story that the Supreme Courts 2018 ruling in Murphy v. NCAA was the starting pistol for the ubiquity of sports gambling as it exists in this moment. That ruling held that the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, a 1992 law that kept states from legalizing sports gambling in their borders, was unconstitutional, and let sports gambling apps get busy in state legislatures and on ballot initiatives; they have since managed to set up shop in 30 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. Sports gambling and its various nasty knock-on effects had haunted American sports since the Black Sox scandal of 1919. After Arnold Rothstein and the mob fixed the World Series, sports leagues distanced themselves from gambling in the name of the integrity of the game. For a long time, sports betting was shady, the stuff of Vegas sports books and various friendly neighborhood proprietors.

There was always a lot of money jammed into that little niche. It was leaking out before PASPA was struck down; the internet mainstreamed talkers and writers who spoke openly about lines and wagers. Some of these talkers even ended up at ESPN, even though this talk was once anathema to anyone trying to be a league partner. Illegal offshore books made betting from home easier than ever before, but not as easy as it would soon become. But after Murphy, entities like DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM, and BetESPN were suddenly free to go get it, and to expand the pool of suckers to draw on. The products they sell cross the natural rush of gambling, the social buzz of sports discourse, and the smooth ease of use of app design. Weve basically created a dynamic ever-changing casino in our pockets, said Dr. Tim Fong, the director of the UCLA Gambling Studies program, and an addiction treatment psychiatrist.

Some of the things these apps do are dumb, but easymaking it easier to put money in your account than take it out, for instance. Others are no less shady but are leveraged on other load-bearing human frailties; available bets and lines update constantly, for instance, using algorithms to adjust on the fly, which lets the apps function like an old-school Twitter feed. Its a second screen experience that moves alongside the game, which keeps bettors passive attention on the machine, and all those new opportunities to bet. I now have patients who have never set foot inside a casino in their entire lives, Fong said. The only gambling theyve ever known is on the phone, the only gambling theyve ever known is on the internet.

Standard treatment for addiction involves working with people to avoid triggering environments. A casino on the drive home, for instance, might require a gambling addict to take another route. Most states require casinos to keep a Do Not Play list, banning anyone who comes in and confesses to a problem from the grounds. (Anyone who exhibits problem gambling tendencies but doesnt ask for help will get an occasional wellness check and a steady stream of free drinks. Its a predatory industry.)

The existence of a legal pocket casino that never closes makes this more difficult. If I say to you, Corbin: you gotta get rid of your phone, you gotta get rid of your access to the internet, youre gonna say, thats not treatment, its punishment, Dr. Fong told me. Its the same thing as saying Get rid of running water, get rid of electricity. That would make no sense in the modern day. There are no federal regulations concerning problem gamblers on these apps, and state enforcement varies wildly. The companies, for their part, are feasting on whale meat. Per the Wall Street Journal, 0.5 percent of the customers at PointsBet, an online book owned by Fanatics, generated more than 70 percent of the companys revenue in 2019 and 2020. Those users were treated to free credit, and special privileges up to and including Steelers tickets. The companies are only required to ask if a user is gambling outside their means if the gambler uses certain trigger phrases, such as asking a customer service representative for a line of credit. All of these companies are held accountable by state legislatures, which are, if were being nice, highly vulnerable to regulatory capture by large companies and their little armies of lobbyists.

Online gambling addicts dont have the casino industry helping you with recovery, said Dr. Fong. Things like self-exclusion programs, responsible gambling programs, with humans inside the casino, theyre designed to help people. [Online] you dont have that. Voluntary self-exclusion programs, in which a problem gambler requests a ban, are imperfect tools in the best of circumstances. The internet, where concealing ones identity is a simple matter for anyone with moderate computer literacy, is not that.

Recovery now has to be fought every minute of the day, Fong went on. In the past it was, Only when youre driving past the casino, when youre inside the casino, is when youre super vulnerable. Now, youre vulnerable at all times.

Fong quickly moved to temper that assessment. That also means that theres also an opportunity, every minute of the day, to do something positive. It isnt just Youre living in a world where theres a constant threat. Youre also living in a world where theres an opportunity for something good. Thats what were focusing on, which is very different from years past.

His hope is that these companies and the government might take all this more seriously, and look to head off addictive behavior. One particular fix stood out to him: Id like to see them do better [to keep people] under the age of 21 from accessing their product. Kids, with their shitty undeveloped sense of risk and plastic mental state, are far more vulnerable than adults; gambling addiction in children tends to trail into adulthood. Apps will claim they dont allow kids under 21 on their websites, but youre not stupid and neither are kids, who can easily figure out how to lie on the internet or use a VPN.

I recently spoke to Keith OBrien, the author of Charlie Hustle: The Rise and Fall of Pete Rose, and the Last Glory Days of Baseball, for another story I was working on. The book paints Rose as a classic gambling addict, a terrible picker who didnt play for money so much as he played for the rush that accompanies risk. Rose was primed for addiction from a very young age. He was also exposed to the practice at a very young age. Gambling was a part of the culture that Pete Rose grew up in, OBrien said. He lived in a home on the west side of town near the banks of the Ohio River, and just down the hill from his house was a little tavern where men were known to gamble. Kids sometimes gambled, playing games outside that tavern. Roses father, Big Pete, was a devoted presence at his sons baseball games, but also regularly brought his son with him to the horse races in Cincinnati. When you ask Pete about what some of his fondest memories of childhood were, its hanging out at the racetrack with his dad, and cheering on whatever horse his father had bet on in that race, OBrien said. Whatever you could say about Big Petes parenting abilities, he did a really great job flipping the right switches in his young sons brain.

Nowadays, the job of the miserable patriarch exposing you to addictive behavior that can ruin your life is performed by gambling apps and their little army of advertisers; you can find them on TV, podcasts, and billboards in stadiums. The entire sports landscape has been transformed into an advertisement for gambling, and advertisements for gambling inevitably turn a vulnerable portion of the population into problem gamblers.

Theyre supposed to follow laws set by each state, said Fong, but I dont see a lot of enforcement of those laws. When all the advertising is unchecked, unregulated, and we have very little idea of what this advertising is doing to people, I think thats a concern. Tobacco, alcohol, cannabis, they all have very sharp rules about advertising. I dont see ads on ESPN about Raw Garden or Stizzy or KIVA Chocolates, right? What gambling sites offer instead are caveats in tiny type, or read in hurried voiceover. When you put the helpline number in an unintelligible message that no one can see or hear or understand, that is not effective prevention advertising in my book, Fong said.

If you are even a passive consumer of sports media, you know about the role that sports gambling advertising partnerships have taken in the industrys future plans for expansion. Interest in gambling drives interest in sports; an audience already interested in sports will see, alongside ESPN+ programming, random European basketball games, Southeast Asian cricket matches, and various college football games, dozens of things on which they could bet at all hours of the day; leagues, teams, and media companies have official partnerships with gaming concerns. Fears about gamblers influencing players or the tawdry world of gambling making a notionally wholesome sports product inaccessible to children have been kicked down the trash chute. Gamblings relationship to pro sports is historical and habitual, yes. But the leagues creating a product that depends on gambling for its very existence is new.

Last year, Mark Cuban sold a majority portion of the Mavericks to the Adelson family, who are the owners of the Sands Casino and some of the worst people in America. The play was not just a cash-flow move for a leveraged billionaire. It was part of a new vision for the Dallas Mavericks, one in which the teams new home arenatheyre angling for one nowis inextricable from a casino, where sports betting and watching the game were happily cuddled up together. Cuban made the sale because he thinks the Sands Corporations involvement will make his remaining chunk of the team that much more valuable; the idea, there, is that the new world of sports gambling will make owners rich in more or less the way that tech IPOs made people rich.

If you are a sportswriter or a fan, and your point of view is fixed on the stuff of sports, the winning and the losing and the roster construction, a neverending barrage of threats to outcomes might seem unbearably chaotic to you, an untenable state of affairs. Such a person can look at the torrent of speculation surrounding Shohei Ohtanis gambling interpreter, or the tragicomic Jontay Porter gambling and ban in the NBA, and taste the future. Team owners, though, are capitalists, the most rapacious and valuation-oriented group ever to dump their money into the pocket of a 20-year-old, and as such have different interests and concerns. There is no reason to believe that even a steady stream of scandals would deter them until or unless it threatened their profitability. The safer option is to enforce the rules to the best of your abilities, act shocked and offended when the public expresses suspicion about the vagaries that plague the league, and keep the revenue pumping. Play it right, and the extra suspicion that clouds peoples perceptions will just give the audience another fun variable to speculate about.

But this shit is not consequence-free. Apps have no incentive to prevent addiction, and gambling addiction fucks people up. If it fucks enough people up bad enough, the gambling app economy could become something more akin to a public health crisis; if the federal government (finally, belatedly) comes calling on that front, how will a sports industry increasingly reliant on all those partnerships and gambling revenue respond?

There is a way to make money, or at least not lose money, gambling on sports, and people who do it. That work involves crunching numbers, diversifying risk, seeking out small inefficiencies; it is, more or less, a job. A friend I spoke to for the story made a bunch of money betting the under on steals for various defense-deficient NBA guards. Its not glamorous, its not juicy, it provides no mondo paydays. Its barely fun at all. Again: its work.

Sports gambling apps do not want people to gamble like that. What they want bettors to do is put money on parlays. Apps push them in that direction constantly, even offering no-risk parlays to whet a prospective gamblers appetite for the harder stuff. When I mentioned slot machine gambling to Dr. Fong, he immediately mentioned the same-game parlay. Its an inevitable winner for casinos that also looks and feels good for the casual gambler.

In Addiction by Design, Schll talks to slot machine designers about the process of making an effective slot machine. (Theyre all from Australia, for some reason.) They tell her that its mostly a matter of feelingfinding a way to build in enough winning to maintain hope in the player, but also enough losing to make it profitable for the casino. Its pretty nauseating; reading about otherwise sane people succumbing to sophisticated Skinner Boxes is dispiriting, and terrifying.

Here is one way that could all look: You watch a game with the app open. It gives you a personalized stream of quick, ever-changing, algorithmically generated bets. It also tracks what you will bet on and what you wont, and then adjusts to create something akin to a personalized slot machine; the idea is to create an experience that feels good to you. If you are even a little bit inclined toward problem gambling, this will bury itself deep, and it will take your money; it will all be, as it currently is in 30 states, legal. And you can play like this until the government or a medical professional intervenes, or doesnt. Everyone with any skin in the gameevery business interest that sees its fans as a renewable resourcewants that to exist.

Whatever form the product takes, there is clarity in the near future. The sports and internet sportsbook industries are determined to cultivate and profit not just from gambling but from gambling addictions; thats where the money is. Sooner or later, if history is any guide, society will come to regard this as a public health concern. The clamps will come out and there will be some attempt to regulate the space into something approaching responsibility. Whenever it happens, it will be too late for a lot of people. How the sports industry will react when its dream of the new cigarette is extinguished seems, in contrast, kind of insignificant.

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Sports Is Betting It All On Gambling - Defector

Some people like to sweat out a bet for 9 hard innings others like immediate satisfaction. Count us as being in the latter, which is why we like to get down with MLB NRFI and YRFI picks. And weve decided to pass that knowledge on to you with our NRFI bets for May 11. Go here for MLB World Series odds.

Of course, there are plenty out there taking blind guesses at this stuff. Its easy to pick the best hitting team or look at what happened in the last game. However, we spent the time pouring through the analytics to make sure that we give you the best odds to stay in the green on these NRFI and YRFI props for May 11. Come check out what we have cooked up for this slate of games.

CHECK OUT THE SPORTS GAMBLING PODCASTS DAILY BEST BETS

First Pitch 4:10 pm EST Fenway Park Boston, Massachusetts Broadcast NESN

I love an NRFI play with only one side to worry about. In this Saturday contest, I dont have to worry about the Nationals scoring at all. Firstly, theyre the worst team in the majors in terms of first inning runs just 0.25 per game. Theyre a bit higher up for the full game, but they take a bit to get going. Hurting their chances is Cooper Criswell and his 1.74 ERA. Hes been solid for the Sox and all hell need to be is decent to shut down the Nationals early.

On the other side, I think the Nationals can keep the Red Sox at bay over the first inning. Jake Irvin has been decent for the Nationals. Hes allowed two or less earned runs in three of his last four games. The Red Sox havent been hot early in games either. They have no runs in the first inning in any of the last five games. Plus, theyre in the bottom half of the league in scoring in general so give me that NRFI for this one.

NRFI/YRFI Bet for May 11: No (-130)

First Pitch 9:38 pm EST Angel Stadium Anaheim, California Broadcast MLB TV

Kansas City might be one of the best teams in the majors in terms of scoring in the first inning (currently 5th at 0.69 per game), but they face a good arm in Tyler Anderson. Anderson has a 2.74 ERA on the year and its a touch lower when hes at home. Hes also only allowed more than three earned runs one time this year (seven starts).

On the other side of things, the Angels havent been all that strong this year on offense. They are 19th in the league in runs per game and 19th in first inning runs as well. Theyll face the live-arm of Cole Ragans. While his scoring numbers are a bit worse than Anderson, the strikeouts are out of control. The Angels are in the bottom third of the league in strikeouts, which should help this NRFI stay in play.

NRFI/YRFI Bet for May 11: No (-130)

If youd like even more info to help make your NRFI picks for May 11, check out the MLB Gambling Podcast. Theyre dropping episodes five days a week to make you the smartest guy/gal at the bar with their MLB picks today.

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MLB NRFI and YRFI Picks - May 11 - SGPN

Just one day after former Los Angeles Dodgers translator Ippei Mizuhara pled guilty to stealing millions from Dodgers designated hitter and pitcher Shohei Ohtani, the two men's stories are headed for the small screen.

Former Sports Illustrated senior editor Albert Chen and Station Eleven producer Scott Delman will produce a scripted drama for Lionsgate Television about the affair, they told Hollywood publications in a statement Thursday.

This is Major League Baseballs biggest sports gambling scandal since Pete Roseand at its center is its biggest star, one that MLB has hitched its wagon on. Well get to the heart of the storya story of trust, betrayal and the trappings of wealth and fame," Chen said in a statement.

Mizuhara's theft of $17 million from Ohtani's bank account to finance a gambling habitto which he pled guilty Wednesdayhas dominated headlines since the start of the MLB season.

Ohtani has continued to thrive in the first year of his 10-year, $700 million pact with Los Angeles. The two-time American League MVP currently leads the majors in batting average (.355), slugging percentage (.678), hits (54), total bases (103) and doubles (14).

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TV Series About Shohei Ohtani Interpreter's Gambling Scandal in Development - Sports Illustrated

Taylor Foehl (left), of Boston, looks at a mobile betting app on his phone after placing a wager, while watching a men's college basketball game at the Cask 'N Flagon sports bar on March 10, 2023, near Fenway Park in Boston. Charles Krupa/AP hide caption

Taylor Foehl (left), of Boston, looks at a mobile betting app on his phone after placing a wager, while watching a men's college basketball game at the Cask 'N Flagon sports bar on March 10, 2023, near Fenway Park in Boston.

Americans are expected to spend a record-setting amount placing bets on the outcome of this year's Super Bowl.

But many fans of the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers won't get the chance to make a legal wager.

That's because California and Missouri are two of a dozen states that have not yet legalized sports gambling amid its explosion across the U.S. over the past few years.

"I think the low- and most of the medium-hanging fruit has been picked here," Becca Giden, director of policy at the gambling research firm Eilers & Krejcik Gaming, said of the majority of states that had legalized sports gambling.

"These last few [states], most of them I would say it's a when and not an if" they pursue legalization, Giden added.

The American Gaming Association estimates that 42.7 million U.S. adults will bet on this year's Super Bowl online, at a sportsbook or with a bookie. That's up more than 40% from last year.

More people are legally wagering on sports as more states legalize the practice, which is permitted at the federal level but up to individual states to regulate.

Thirty-eight states and Washington, D.C. have legal sports betting operations, according to an AGA tally, while several others are considering measures to allow it.

This year's Super Bowl will be the first one to take place in the country's gambling capital: Las Vegas.

But in the two contenders' home states as well as in other jurisdictions such as Texas, Minnesota and South Carolina betting on sports remains illegal.

The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a nationwide ban on sports betting outside of Nevada in 2018, and since then there's been a rush among many state legislatures to legalize sports betting a potentially lucrative new source of tax revenue.

But not every state has taken the field.

Geoff Zochodne, a journalist who covers sports betting for Covers.com, says there's no single reason those states haven't legalized sports betting yet. Rather, it's often local issues and attitudes that influence a state's legislative process.

"I've been watching various states go through debates around legalizing sports betting, and there are always these unique concerns in each state about legalization that are raised by the various interested parties that are there," Zochodne said.

In California, voters in a 2022 election rejected two measures that could have legalized sports betting in the country's largest state.

Proposition 26 would have permitted sports betting at tribal casinos, but it faced pushback from cardroom operators who worried about a provision allowing private citizens to sue companies over state gambling law violations.

The second ballot measure, Proposition 27, would have allowed online sports gambling, a measure backed by companies such as FanDuel and DraftKings but opposed by the Native American tribes that own and operate the state's casinos.

Another try at legalization was scrapped just last month over a lack of tribal support.

The Missouri House of Representatives approved a bill last year to legalize sports betting, but it never came up for a vote in the Senate.

The stalemate there largely has to do with one Missouri lawmaker's effort to combine the legalization of sports betting with the expansion of video gambling terminals at places like veterans and fraternal organizations, KCUR reported.

But renewed legalization efforts could be in the cards for Missouri this year.

A House committee approved a bill to legalize sports betting earlier this month, and a coalition of professional sports teams in the state including the Chiefs is hoping to put the issue directly to voters through a ballot measure.

In just a few years, sports betting has become legal in a majority of states and ballooned into a multibillion-dollar industry and it appears likely to continue to grow.

Giden, of the gambling research firm, said sports betting is "by far the fastest expansion for a gambling product in the United States in all of our history that I can tell."

The sudden surge of legalized sports betting in the U.S. has worried some advocates who've warned about a spike in problem gambling, but it's also created a windfall for many states that have decided to regulate and tax it.

According to the financial information website The Motley Fool, states have collected more than $4.3 billion in tax revenue since the Supreme Court lifted the sports betting ban in 2018.

California and Missouri will miss out on legal sports betting revenue during this year's Super Bowl. But according to Zochodne, having your home team emerge victorious in a Super Bowl isn't always a winning financial proposition for sportsbooks.

When local fans overwhelmingly bet on their home team to win the big game, sportsbooks have to pay out major winnings. Even though Super Bowl Sunday is a golden opportunity to gain new customers, operators may lose money.

Last February, when the Chiefs beat the Philadelphia Eagles to win the Super Bowl, regulators one state over in Kansas reported no revenue from in-person sports betting for the month and just $35,000 in revenue from online bets.

One month earlier, sportsbooks claimed nearly $6 million in combined revenue.

"You can't say for certain that's exactly why," Zochodne said, "but it's a very strong indication that the Chiefs winning the Super Bowl really dealt a financial blow there."

Original post:

Super Bowl betting soars, but it's still not legal in Chiefs and 49ers home states - NPR

Its the biggest sports betting day of the year and that highlights a two-fold problem happening simultaneously when it comes to problem gambling, said Envision Partnerships Chief Operating Officer Kristina Latta-Landefeld.

Obviously, theres an increase in access and availability of gambling because of online gambling and sports betting; theres just a lot more ways for people can gamble so a lot more people are gambling. The other thing it coincides with is that the help that should be available is not really available, she said.

Latta-Landefeld said treatment is not as available as it should be as gambling, which is considered a silent addiction. Its oftentimes not recognized until someone puts themself, and many times their family, at serious financial risk.

Its something that can be hidden a little bit more as its a behavioral addiction as opposed to a physiological addiction, she said. People tend to seek out help later, into the problem, as opposed if you relate it to a substance use disorder.

This is also a chicken-and-the-egg problem because unless someone is asking for help, mental health providers often say theres not a need because people arent asking for it, Latta-Landefeld said. And not asking for help, she said, is a sign of a gambling problem. Thats one reason why Envision Partnerships hosted the Problem Gambling Coalition of Southwest Ohio, which is based out of the University of Cincinnati, last month.

According to Axios, which analyzed state gaming figures, Ohioans bet a collective $7.7 billion in 2023 with sportsbooks pulling in more than $900 million in revenues, which far exceeds the projections outlined in the bill that allowed sports betting in Ohio to begin on Jan. 1, 2023. It projected the impact could generate as much as $24 million a year for Ohio. Steve Bittenbender, who serves as an analyst and writer with BetOhio.com, a news site and affiliate covering the sports-betting industry, told this new agency in December, Ohio almost surpassed that in January (2023).

There are 38 states (and Washington, D.C.) with legal sports betting, and 26 states allow online sports betting.

Nationwide, its estimated that 2 million adults (which is about 1%) are considered to have a severe gambling problem in a given year. Another 4 million to 6 million would classify they have either a mild or moderate gambling problem, according to the National Council on Problem Gambling.

Its always been an issue, said Problem Gambling Network of Ohio Associate Director Michael Buzzelli of gambling in the Buckeye State. Ohios had great services for individuals impacted by gambling for a number of years. A lot of those started in 2010 when we legalized casino gambling, but certainly the rates of problem gambling have risen over the past year due to sports gambling and the proliferation of marketing, the bombardment of marketing. With all that, more people are gambling and youre seeing more and more problems associated with it.

And agencies promoting addiction services for problem gambling, also known as gambling disorder, arent anti-gambling but Buzzelli said, Were all in this together to make sure gambling is safe, fun and responsible for those who choose to do it, but theres also available resources for those who are impacted by it.

Problem gambling rates have tripled over the past several years, he said. In 2017, that rate was at 0.9%, but that number is 2.8% of the adult population in Ohio. Thats 255,000 people, he said. And the impacts of problem gambling arent just to that quarter-of-a-million Ohioans. Its compounded as Buzzelli said a person with a gambling disorder negatively impacts eight to 10 people, from spouses and children to friends and co-workers.

The financial component makes it so big that there are many drastic consequences to the family, the community. Youre talking about the loss of a job, emptying the college fund, losing houses and cars, he said. The reach of the consequences really is a web around the life of the person who has the addiction.

The Problem Gambling helpline has seen an increase in calls. For years, theyd receive 400 to 500 calls a month, and now theyre seeing twice that number. If you have 1,000 people calling the Problem Gambling helpline every month, that is an indicator that people are really struggling, he said.

Latta-Landenfeld said most of those hotline calls are from 18-to-21-year-olds, who are people who are not legally allowed to gamble.

ResponsibleGambling.org reports that people between 18 and 24 are at a high risk of developing gambling problems.

At this age, the brain is still developing, and emotion and logic arent fully formed. This means that decision-making ability hasnt yet matured, making young adults more likely to take risks or act impulsively, according to the organization.

Problem Gambling Coalition of Southwest Ohio Chair Rachel Johnson said as gambling has evolved into more entertainment, access has evolved and expanded, and education and prevention have become key, she said on Cincinnati Edition on WVXU. Think before you bet is not just a mantra, but practical advice.

Thats the crux of a lot of treatment is working on trying to help that individual person and put a space between the bet and take a step back, she said. Its really about awareness and educating our community.

Buzzelli said there needs to be more involvement with county mental health and addiction boards and addiction agencies but they dont have a lot of services for gambling disorder.

We need to make sure that if gambling is going to be so available and so accessible, we need to make sure services are just as available and just as accessible, he said.

He also said hed like to see more colleges and universities be as involved as at U.C. has been with its problem gambling coalition.

There needs to be programs on campuses, just like there are for drugs and alcohol, just like there are for suicide prevention he said. Problem gambling has to be raised to that level because a lot of these students are doing it, and we got to make sure there are resources there on campus.

Anyone in need of assistance with a gambling addiction or gambling disorder can call Ohios helpline at 800-589-9966. There are also online resources, including at pgnohio.org or ohio.gov/responsible-gambling

Envision Partnerships in Hamilton has multiple pillars, and one of those is gambling addiction. Get more information at envisionpartnerships.org/prevention-pillars/problem-gaming-prevention.html.

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Problem gambling has increased in Ohio since sports betting legalized - Hamilton Journal News

CORPUS CHRISTI, Tx On Thursday shortly after 12 pm, detectives with the Corpus Christi Police Department's Narcotics and Vice Investigations Division served a warrant at the El Patron Sweepstakes Gameroom located at the 4600 block of SPID, according to a press release from CCPD. The warrant was served after months of investigation into the business that found evidence of illegal gambling. 90 pieces of gambling equipment and over $31,000 in cash were seized by detectives.

Andria Thompson, age 34, was arrested and charged with gambling promotion, possession of a gambling device, keeping a gambling place, and engaging in organized criminal activity. The charge of organized criminal activity is a felony punishable with up to two years in jail and a $10,000 fine.

23 customers inside El Patron were cited for gambling, a class C misdemeanor, during the raid.

KRIS 6 News

This is an ongoing investigation by the Corpus Christi Police Department's Narcotics and Vice Investigations Division. CCPD reminds citizens that game rooms which pay out cash rewards are engaging in illegal gambling and that patrons of these establishments may face criminal charges.

For the latest local news updates, click here, or download the KRIS 6 News App.

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Illegal gambling raid at El Patron leads to 1 arrest and 23 citations - KRIS 6 News Corpus Christi

WORCESTER, Mass. -Victor Ortiz, director of Massachusetts' Office of Problem Gambling Services, said the in the weeks following the Super Bowl, the gambling helpline sees a significant jump in calls.

"Often times, if they experience distress, they call the helpline," Ortiz said. "Or, they may say, we're going to try and double down during March Madness. And what you see is the after effects during the calls in April."

This will be the first year mobile sports betting will be legalized in Massachusetts for the Super Bowl.

"We have always taken a proactive approach by ensuring that we increase the staffing our helpline during this time of the year," Ortiz said.

Marcia Amarsingh is an addiction specialist. She said gambling sometimes takes a back seat to other addictions, like drugs and alcohol.

"Gambling is similar to other addictions," Amarsingh said. "There's a part where people do it, and then it becomes, use, abuse, and then dependence."

Spectrum News last spoke to Amarsingh in the days leading up to the legalization of sports betting, where she shared some concerns about the ease of access to gambling. A year later, she says those concerns have come to life, as she too has seen an increase in people needing help.

"People don't see gambling as an addiction," Amarsingh said. "They think if you're not putting a substance in your body, then you're really not hurting yourself. They don't look at the psychological aspect of gambling where people are losing their housing, people are losing their jobs, their families."

Amarsingh said if you're going out to gamble, set restrictions.

"Go with some sober friends, people who are more positive and will not encourage gambling," Amarsingh said. "They should have other plans in place and not bring active money, or have a card in which they will spend if they have to. Just certain restrictions to help with the availability of raw cash."

Both Ortiz and Amarsingh said there are a number of signs to look out for, including depression, denial, agitation, anxiety and an obsession with gambling.

If you or someone you know is in need of help regarding a gambling addiction, you're encouraged to get in touch with the state's gambling helpline at 1-800-327-5050.

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Experts discuss responsible gambling ahead of the Super Bowl - Spectrum News 1

The NFLs rules on gambling have generated widespread criticism and questions leading up to the Super Bowl in Las Vegas, as the league aims to balance its sportsbook partnerships and policies preventing players from betting on games.

Gambling was a major topic of NFL commissioner Roger Goodells annual Super Bowl news conference Monday, when he said the integrity of the league was the top priority.

We want to make sure that when people are watching NFL games, they know the action on the field is genuine and without any outside influence, Goodell said.

With the marquee sports event days away in the U.S. betting hub, its worth revisiting the NFLs policies for its players and how the leagues stance has changed over time.

The league has long maintained that players are not allowed to bet on NFL events. Its 2023 gambling policy states that players can never place, solicit or facilitate a bet either directly or through a third party on any NFL game, practice, or other event, such as the Combine or Draft.

Players are also not allowed to participate in anyone elses NFL betting activities, such as asking someone to place an NFL-related bet on their behalf or allowing another person to use their account to place an NFL-related bet.

Additionally, players may not enter a sportsbook during the NFL season (from the Hall of Fame Game through the Super Bowl) except to access an area outside of a sportsbook, the rules state. For example, a player can pass through a sportsbook where necessary to get to a separate part of an entertainment, casino or hotel complex.

At the Super Bowl, the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers are both staying in Lake Las Vegas, about 25 miles east of the Strip.

GO DEEPER

Why the Chiefs and 49ers are staying in Lake Las Vegas, not on The Strip

The leagues rules are also particular about when and where players maygamble.

Players are prohibited from gambling in team or league facilities (such as practice facilities, stadiums and offices) or while traveling with their teams (such as on a team plane or in a team hotel) to participate in an NFL game or in-season team activity.

Players are allowed to bet on sports other than the NFL in states where betting is legal, subject to the NFLs rules on entering a sportsbook and betting from the workplace.

For example, a player may not place a bet from an NFL facility even if the bet is not on an NFL game. Detroit Lions receiver Jameson Williams and Tennessee Titans offensive tackle Nicholas Petit-Frere were disciplined this season for violating the rule. They originally received six-game suspensions, but the league updated its gambling policy in September, reducing the penalty from six games to four.

Betting on non-NFL events in the workplace or while working now carries a two-game suspension for the first violation, six games for a second offense and at least one year for a third offense.

Members of the two Super Bowl teams, the Chiefs and 49ers, are prohibited from participating in any form of gambling, including casino games and betting on any sport.

Players on the other 30 teams may engage in legal gambling but not on the NFL, and they cannot go in a sportsbook until the Super Bowl is over, the league said.

Jeff Miller, the NFL executive vice president of communications, public affairs and policy, said last week: The rules are no different for the participating teams players and other personnel as they would be for any other game: When on business, there is no gambling, whether it be sports gambling or otherwise.

And any player, coach, personnel, yours truly, who would be caught or identified gambling at a casino would be eligible for the disciplinary process, and that would be addressed in the normal course of discipline as we would any player or other personnel who there was evidence that was violating the rules around gambling.

Violations of the NFLs gambling policy are decided by Goodell or his designee on a case-by-case basis, according to the 2023 rules.

Discipline may include, without limitation, a fine, suspension, termination of employment and/or banishment from the NFL for life, the rules state.

Below are the baseline suspensions for violations of the gambling policy, with possible upward or downward adjustments, according to the rules, which note: Nothing in this policy precludes the commissioner from imposing more discipline for other types of prohibited conduct.

The Athletics Mike Jones explained in a recent article how the NFLs complicated relationship with sports betting has evolved:

Since the legalization of sports gambling, the NFL has worked hard to walk a tightrope when it comes to partnering with companies such as Caesars, FanDuel and DraftKings and also ensuring that players avoid activities that would compromise the integrity of the game. The league has yet to release figures on how much revenue partnerships with gambling companies generate, but according to the American Gaming Association (AGA), the NFL brings in $2.3 billion per year in income because of those deals.

League officials long frowned upon betting on NFL games and worried that involvement would lead to player involvement and questions about the temptation to fix games. But once the Supreme Court in 2018 overturned the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, they felt the need to evolve as well.

The relationship that the league has with sports gambling changed for one specific reason, and that is because the world changed, Miller said on the leagues efforts to promote responsible sports betting practices. The Supreme Court overturned (the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act) back in 2018, five years and some odd months ago. As a result, we had to rethink how we engage with legalized sports gambling, and thats what weve done. And well continue to look at and examine how we do that in the hopes that we can be the best we can to protect the integrity of the game in a world where the rules changed.

(Photo: Ethan Miller / Getty Images)

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What are the NFLs gambling rules for the Super Bowl in Las Vegas? - The Athletic