Matt Bowyer After Prison: The Bookmaker Behind the Ohtani Gambling Scandal Speaks Out

Miss Understood with Rachel Uchitel

Former illegal bookmaker Matt Boyer returns to discuss his life following a federal prison sentence related to the Shohei Otani gambling sca

Key takeaways

Matt Boyer was officially inducted into the Las Vegas 'Black Book,' banning him from casinos for life.
The gambling scandal involving Ippe/Ippei Mizuhara led to significant financial penalties for casinos, including a $34 million payout.

Main topics

Life after federal prison
The Shohei Otani gambling scandal

Notable quotes

When I walked into prison, and the first thing you do is strip naked, grab your testicles and cough...

Conclusion

A raw look at the consequences of high-stakes illegal gambling and the

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:02) Today's episode is brought to you by Wavy Talk. I think hair can say a lot about how you're feeling. Some days you want to polish, blow out. Other days you want to try something completely different. Wavy Talk makes hair tools that give you room to play with your look, from dryers and curlers to straighteners and styling tools. What I like about their approach is that you don't have to be a professional to make time for your hair. Their tools are designed to make everyday styling feel easier and more accessible, whatever look you're going for. To explore Wavy Talk, scan the QR code on your screen or click. Click the link in the description. Speaker 2 (0:47) How long has it been since you have been out of federal prison? Speaker 3 (0:50) A little over six months. Speaker 2 (0:52) The last time Matt Boyer was here, prison was still ahead of him. Matt was the illegal bookmaker at the center of the Shohei Otani gambling scandal, taking hundreds of millions of dollars in wagers from Otani's interpreter, Ipe Mizura. That operation would eventually cost Matt his freedom. Now... He's out. And for the first time, he's telling me what happened after he went inside. Speaker 3 (1:15) When I walked into prison, and the first thing you do is strip naked, grab your testicles and cough, and you're just stripped from everything. Speaker 2 (1:21) What was the worst thing you saw when you were in prison? Speaker 3 (1:24) One guy's eye was pretty much out of a socket. I saw another guy die of a heart attack. I watched the guards not do anything for him. Speaker 2 (1:30) And while Matt was serving his sentence, the fallout from the case that made international headlines only got bigger. Speaker 3 (1:36) I just got inducted into the Black Book. In Las Vegas, there's 39 people. in the world that are in the black book, and I became number 39, which means I'm banned and barred for the rest of my life. I Speaker 2 (1:45) saw somewhere an article about how this is bigger than you. I mean, the government is having some casinos pay money. The Speaker 1 (1:52) Nevada Gaming Control Board says Caesars failed to verify bookmaker Matthew Boyer's source of funds. Well, Speaker 3 (2:00) they paid $34 million just because of my case. And it's not over? No. I owe the government $10 million right now to the IRS. Wow. So give me two years, I'll have that covered, and I'll be... I'll be well off. I have big plans. Speaker 2 (2:11) Matt Boyer served his time, but the story that started with Shohei Otani's interpreter is nowhere near over. Matt, thank you so much for flying all the way to me in Florida. It's so good to see you. You've been through so much in the last year since you've last been here. Speaker 3 (2:31) I have. Thank you. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. Speaker 2 (2:33) Of course. So how long has it been since you have been out of federal prison? Speaker 3 (2:37) A little over six months. Speaker 2 (2:38) Wow. Speaker 3 (2:39) Yeah. Speaker 2 (2:40) Okay, so before we get into that, I want our listeners, if they didn't listen to the first episode, and actually, guys, if you're listening, we are going to put his first episode out right before this so that it's easy to find because it gives all the details. But Cliff Notes version, tell us exactly what happened, what you were doing and how you got caught and what you, you know, ultimately, what you had to serve. Well, Speaker 3 (3:02) basically, I was an illegal bookmaker for almost 30 years. Speaker 2 (3:06) And Speaker 3 (3:07) I ran one of the biggest... sports betting casino online operations in the country. And then eventually the feds raided me in 2014, actually. And that situation was I signed a Bannerman form and they didn't actually charge me anything. So at 39 years old, I made a decision to take my business instead of the fork in the road decision was, okay, maybe, you know, I had a great business for so many years and made a lot of money and got away with it, so to speak. I decided to egotistically go be the biggest bookmaker in the country. Speaker 2 (3:40) Right. Speaker 3 (3:41) And so then it became the largest bookmaking operation, which led to them coming back nine years later. And this time when they came back, it was a whole different ballgame. Now I had a lot of celebrities and athletes, one of them being the interpreter for Shohei Itani, which led me to a year and a day sentencing in federal prison. And then, of course, headlines everywhere, just like you went through one day, which was all over the media just being blasted as this, you know. really bad person. Speaker 2 (4:07) Yeah. And the media really took control of your narrative. So even though you were doing something illegal and terrible, it didn't mean you were this terrible person. Everybody was claiming that you were. And I know you have five kids, you have a wife, you have friends, obviously family. And this must have been terrible to see how the media labeled you and created a narrative for you. Speaker 3 (4:29) Yeah. That's, that's actually the pushback I had with my attorney was. The first year of my sentencing, prior to sentencing, my indictment, I just shut my mouth because that's what I was advised to do. Speaker 2 (4:40) And Speaker 3 (4:40) then after about a year, we had this battle between her and I. Because I decided to go on to social media and start giving my narrative. So you're absolutely right. The narrative was, you know, all they paint the picture of is all the bad parts, right? Speaker 2 (4:53) Right. Speaker 3 (4:53) So I just got tired of that. Speaker 2 (4:55) Yeah. And I Speaker 3 (4:56) said, you know, I'm going to paint the picture of the truth, which is not all good. Speaker 2 (4:59) Yeah. I Speaker 3 (5:00) didn't want to, I wasn't, I'm not an angel. I committed a crime and I knew it was illegal. I knew what I was doing. Speaker 2 (5:04) Yeah. But Speaker 3 (5:05) I also wanted people to see that there's different sides to me. And also that, you know, even though what I was doing was. technically wrong, which we'll get into, which is legal everywhere now almost. But I wasn't a bad person, you Speaker 2 (5:19) know, Speaker 3 (5:20) despite some of the poor decisions I made. Sure. Speaker 2 (5:22) So let's talk about the illegal sports world, sports betting world. How big is it right now? Speaker 3 (5:27) The biggest it's ever been. It's gigantic. In fact, right now there's only 11 states left that it's not legal. California is still being one of them, which is where I reside. Okay. That being said, about a week ago. FanDuel just got a license to do prediction markets in that state. So really it's legal in every state technically because you can just do it in the prediction markets. Speaker 2 (5:49) So explain that to me. So I remember on my show, an ad sponsor came to me, Kalshi. Speaker 3 (5:54) Correct. Is Speaker 2 (5:55) this the same thing? Prediction market, which I had to do an ad read for. And as I was doing the ad read, I was like, wait a minute, I don't get this. So explain the prediction market and why is it legal? Speaker 3 (6:06) prediction markets are basically where instead of you going through a sports book and betting on, let's call it the Buffalo Bills, you buy shares. It's basically a verbiage of going around that. It's the same thing, though. You're betting on the Buffalo Bills. Speaker 2 (6:20) Right. Speaker 3 (6:20) But is Speaker 2 (6:21) it like a fantasy version of it? Because it's just you're predicting, you're literally taking a guess. I mean, I guess that's what gambling is anyways, right? Speaker 3 (6:29) It's the same thing. It's just their verbiage. So instead of you... literally betting on the Buffalo Bills and getting a sportsbook ticket or betting online and getting a printed, let's say you bet $100. It's $110 to win $100, right? Now you're buying a share, so it's an actual share. Got it. But it's really the exact same thing. It's just another way around it. And they're brilliant. Cal Sheep, Pauline Market, they found a way to legally take sports bets and make it in a prediction market. And there's a big battle going on right now between, of course, it's going to go all the way to Supreme Court, but between Las Vegas casinos, all these FanDuel and DraftKings who are upset, who finally got so upset with Kaoshi and PolyMarket that they're just saying, screw it, I'll just join the crowd. Speaker 2 (7:13) Right, right. Speaker 3 (7:14) And that's why FanDuel just got a prediction market license in California because they're not going, they're just not getting anywhere. Right now, CalShe is actually getting more business than all of these sportsbooks. Wow. Speaker 2 (7:26) And, Speaker 3 (7:27) you know, of course, something's going to have to happen here soon, but they're getting away with it and they're making millions and millions of dollars every day. Speaker 2 (7:34) So is the government, you know, obviously the government is aware of how big this market is. Do you think at some point they will make it easy for the people who are the bookies right now to turn legal or to start doing the right thing? Speaker 3 (7:51) So in 2018, when gambling became legal, Speaker 2 (7:54) that's Speaker 3 (7:55) exactly what started, you know, basically they're giving licenses out. But the problem is they only give a license to what seems to be major, you know, corporations, conglomerates. Whereas like Rachel couldn't go out and get a license. I can't go out and get a license. So it's really unfair anyway because. You know how in marijuana, great example, Speaker 2 (8:15) they Speaker 3 (8:15) give a certain amount of licenses, but they were giving them to regular Joes, I call it, people who applied for the license. And of course, there's requirements. And sports betting should be the same. If you and your husband, great example. financially are capable of running a sports book and put up money for a bond and Speaker 2 (8:31) can Speaker 3 (8:31) cover all the action, you should have the same rights and opportunity as DraftKings and FanDuel. Speaker 2 (8:36) It Speaker 3 (8:37) doesn't appear that that's happening because there's no regular Joes out there getting a license or getting approved for the license. So the bookies are always going to be there. I mean, if you don't give the regular Joe an opportunity, then what do you expect? Speaker 2 (8:49) Right, of course. Speaker 3 (8:50) Also, the main thing that the reason why bookmakers will always be in business is credit. Speaker 2 (8:56) Key Speaker 3 (8:56) word is credit. All these operations that we're talking about that are legal entities, you have to put the money in the account. Speaker 2 (9:02) And Speaker 3 (9:03) most gamblers don't want to do that if they don't have to. Yeah. Especially degenerate gamblers because they're really betting money they don't have. Speaker 2 (9:10) Right, right. Speaker 3 (9:10) So that's always going to be around. Speaker 2 (9:12) So you were such a big part of this underground market. How hard is it for you now? Because I'm assuming you still know the players. You still know the clients. You still see what's going on. Do they try and hide that from you? Do you stay away from them? Like, how does that work? Speaker 3 (9:25) So I get DMs on my Instagram almost daily with people requesting me to, you know, be involved in that business or saying that their bookie, frankly, doesn't pay them or problems. Or since I left the business, you know, my reputation was very good Speaker 1 (9:40) and Speaker 3 (9:40) just begging. Or do you even know a bookmaker? Which I can't. even give that out because that's conspiracy and I'm just so far from that world as far as ever getting in trouble and wanting anything to do with going back to prison. Speaker 2 (9:52) So Speaker 3 (9:52) I really dance around that and just say I'm out of the business and I have nothing to do with it, which is true. That being said, I'm still getting bombarded with it. And it's hard for me because the dopamine rush that I got from running that business and also gambling every day at the highest levels is always going to be there. It's always going to be something in the back of my mind. I struggle with it at times, especially as my finances are just depleting. Sure. As they have been for the last three years. And I'm trying to maintain a decent lifestyle for my family. Speaker 2 (10:20) Yeah. And Speaker 3 (10:21) I'll earn it. I'm grinding and I'm working to get there. But it's not as easy when I could just open an operation today. Of course. And start making millions of dollars right away. Speaker 2 (10:30) Right. And you obviously know how to do it and you know what got you caught. For sure. So I get that. Speaking of that dopamine rush, how hard is it for you to watch sports? Or like, what do you do on Sundays? Actually, Speaker 3 (10:43) I didn't really watch sports at all for the last year. Even in prison, I barely watch sports. Speaker 2 (10:49) I Speaker 3 (10:49) watched, of course, the Super Bowl. I watched the World Series. But these guys, you know, even in prison, they're watching sports all day. Speaker 2 (10:56) Yeah. Speaker 3 (10:57) Without any money on it, I just don't have the same drive. I'm starting to get the love back for sports again to watch a game without having money on it. Right. But it's not the same. Right. And it never will be. And for me to say any different would be a lie. Right. Because when you put money on something, for me at least, it entices that event drastically. Golfing, you know, personally, just playing golf with my friends, you know, if you're betting $200 a hole or whatever the number is, it makes it that much more interesting. Speaker 2 (11:25) Yeah. Speaker 3 (11:25) It's no different for me in watching sports. I just can't really get into it without having money on it. And that's really a sad statement, but it's the truth. Speaker 2 (11:31) No, I get it. Correct me if I'm wrong, but when we spoke last, I believe you said every Monday you were moving something like five to seven million dollars, right? At the time that you really found yourself in hot water, how much were you making a week and what did you really have in your account? And my ultimate question is, did you have to give something back? Speaker 3 (11:51) So at the height of my career, which was right when I was raided, 2023, I did over a billion dollars. business in 2023, which really isn't heard of. The interpreter alone did $326 million in wagers through my website. Moving $5 to $7 million throughout the country was probably my biggest challenge. Speaker 1 (12:11) Getting Speaker 3 (12:11) someone in Chicago $40,000 in cash on a Monday morning requires a lot of movement, a lot of logistics. That's, I think, what made my business that much stronger over other bookmakers because I had the ability to do all that very swiftly. That being said, I was probably making anywhere from $1 million to $1.5 million a month. Speaker 3 (12:36) sometimes more, it just depends on the weeks. And then of course I was gambling personally so high as well. So that factored, so some weeks my movement of money might be anywhere from four to $5 million personally, just in and out of my, not really my bank account because my bank accounts were almost all closed. I was barred from every bank in the country. But Speaker 2 (12:56) so when you say they were closed, does that mean they take the money or they hold it? Did the government have to take money back? How did that work? Speaker 3 (13:02) So the government, because I paid my restitution in full, which is a little under 1.7. It was like 1.6 and change a million. I paid that in full before I even saw the judge. Got Speaker 2 (13:12) it. Speaker 3 (13:12) I did. I had no victims. It was nobody I scammed or defrauded. So I didn't have to pay any victims. So the victim technically was the fine that they charged me from the IRS. Speaker 2 (13:22) Got it. Speaker 3 (13:23) Even that's a question that I still disagree with, but you know, because at the end of the day, it says in 2022, I was, I was charged with a falsified tax return. So that's a nice way of saying you underreported. Speaker 2 (13:36) Sure. But Speaker 3 (13:37) the reality is I filed as a professional gambler. Speaker 1 (13:40) I Speaker 3 (13:41) did pay millions of dollars in taxes. And so everyone reads these statements. And as you know, we just talked about this. The media blasted as if I was a non-taxpayer. That's not true. So the reason why the government wouldn't allow me to file my return correctly was all the losses that I occurred in the casinos by laying off bets that I received. they wouldn't let me offset. Speaker 2 (14:03) And they Speaker 3 (14:04) said that because I ran a legal business, I don't even have that right or opportunity basically. So for example, if I have someone bets $300,000 on the Lions and I like that wager and I don't want to take it and I go to the casino and I bet $300,000, let's say that player lost. Speaker 2 (14:20) So Speaker 3 (14:21) I received $300,000 from him and the $300,000 that I received, I bet through the casino and I lost it Speaker 2 (14:26) because Speaker 3 (14:27) I offset the bet. So there's no transaction for me technically. I had to still pay taxes on that $300,000 is what they're saying. I Speaker 2 (14:35) see. But Speaker 3 (14:35) I didn't. I wrote in my tax return with my CPA as a professional gambler Speaker 2 (14:40) that Speaker 3 (14:40) my net proceeds for the year, I think was $685,000 that year, which is not a great year for me basically. But that's where they came in and got me on a falsified tax return, which is additional felony in charge. Speaker 2 (14:52) Oh, I see. Speaker 3 (14:53) Yeah. So I received three felony charges, money laundering, falsified tax return, and of course the least one. time-wise was illegal bookmaking, which was three years. So it was 10 years, five years, three years. So Speaker 2 (15:04) you were up against, like, what did you think you could get? Speaker 3 (15:08) Well, the max is 18 years. Okay. But as you know, they throw out these numbers and that's like, there's so many ways that you're going to avoid that. Of course, I was a first-time offender. I had no priors. I had a clean record. And, you know, the max is basically, I mean, if you're a person that's committed crime over and over again, then... you're going to be more in that guideline. My guidelines had me at roughly three to five years. Okay. Speaker 2 (15:30) That's Speaker 3 (15:31) what I was looking at. So Speaker 2 (15:32) when you were here last time, you did not know what you were going to get. Correct. Speaker 3 (15:35) Can Speaker 2 (15:35) you talk about what that day was? I mean, I think I texted you that morning because I knew you were going in. Right. And do they call that sentencing day? Correct. Okay. So I texted you. It was like five o'clock in the morning, your time or something. And you were like, I haven't really slept. Yeah, I didn't sleep. And I was so anxious for you to hear what. the time was going to be, what the sentence was going to be. So can you talk about what that morning was like and standing there in front of the judge and how did you feel? Speaker 3 (15:58) That was intense. I have goosebumps. I've never been so nervous. I'm not really a person that gets really nervous. Speaker 2 (16:04) Yeah. And Speaker 3 (16:05) I've never been so nervous. I could barely speak when I first got the microphone standing there. So my, well, let's start back to the sleeping part. Yeah. I probably slept two hours. I have, we have a beautiful home. I'm blessed. And we have a... a little spa room. So I have a sauna, indoor infrared sauna and Speaker 2 (16:21) a Speaker 3 (16:21) cold plunge. And I swear I was in that sauna and cold plunge back and forth. Like, cause I was, I couldn't get my mind to relax, you know? And so I slept maybe two hours and then my entire family came over my home and I wanted to show unity to the, basically the media and the world. Because when I pulled up to the courtroom, I should say the courthouse, there was like 50 media outlets. Speaker 2 (16:47) Wow. Speaker 3 (16:48) Literally, and you can see the video on my Instagram. And I knew it was going to be that way because the pre-sentencing, I went and there was tons of media. Okay. And I knew sentencing would be even more. Right. Speaker 2 (16:58) And sorry, at this point, had Ipe been sentenced already? Speaker 3 (17:01) He was already in prison. Okay, he Speaker 2 (17:02) was in prison. He got five years. Speaker 3 (17:04) He got 57 months. Okay. And I saw his sentencing day and the media was crazy as well. Right. So my attorney, Diane, she's like, look, that's going to be very similar. Speaker 2 (17:14) Right. It Speaker 3 (17:15) probably was worse, actually, as far as media. But I told myself that it's an opportunity to show the world. And even my own children, like, we're a unit. You know, we're together. So I rented a party bus, ironically, Speaker 1 (17:28) to Speaker 3 (17:29) pull up to the courthouse. And I don't mean a party bus, but, you know, one of those large buses. And so, in fact, my attorney made a joke on the way. as we're pulling up the courthouse, can you turn off the lights? Because it was like, you know, they have those. Speaker 2 (17:41) The strobe lights or something. Yeah, it didn't want to look like we're coming in. Turn the music down. Yeah. Get off the pole. Speaker 3 (17:48) 100%. Exactly. So we pulled up and, you know, it was basically my entire family. And then there was so much that we had a couple of cars of my kids and their boyfriends and stuff like that. And we pulled up to the media and we just, I grabbed my wife's hand and, you know, stood tall and said, you know, here we go, right? And then I didn't talk to the media at all before I went in. Speaker 2 (18:07) But Speaker 3 (18:08) when I came out, I did. But the point is I wanted to be, just show that strength. And as I did that, the courtroom, this is really, really a great thing. It was overfilled. So they opened another courtroom and it overfilled. And it opened the third one. And then it actually, there were so many people that are supporting me that they were actually watching it on monitors downstairs. And by the way, the federal court building in Orange County is absolutely stunning. It's marble everywhere. It's like, it feels like a, I mean, it's like a Ritz Carlton. Speaker 2 (18:38) It's Speaker 3 (18:38) stunning. So it's like a very, you go through security, like an airport. It's very intense. And there's a picture that I have on my Instagram that when you walk up, my case was so big. Speaker 1 (18:50) They Speaker 3 (18:51) put on a billboard, like a beautiful billboard in fluorescent lighting, United States of America versus Matthew Boyer. Wow. My attorney's never seen that in 32 years. And it was like. this intense, like, you know, like you're going to like a, an event, you know, like a big boxing event. Right. And I felt like that. It was like me against the world, you know, me against the United States of America, which is a powerful thing to see your name against the USA. Speaker 2 (19:15) Yeah. Yeah. Speaker 3 (19:16) And, uh, it's just these little moments that hit you when you, even though you're expecting all these things until you walk through it. And so I was just so nervous. I felt like my family, Speaker 2 (19:27) all Speaker 3 (19:28) of my mom, my wife, just like, so. The looks on their faces, it actually makes me sick. Yeah. Because I just I could still visualize it even now. I Speaker 2 (19:37) got chills when you were describing that at the beginning there. Quick break here, folks, because I have to tell you this conversation doesn't end when the episode does. Some of my favorite moments never make the public podcast. They happen after we stop recording, behind the scenes, or in conversations that are just a little too personal for the regular show. That's exactly what you'll find on Patreon. Depending on your membership, you'll get exclusive bonus episodes, my weekly Palm Beach Life series, behind the scenes content, monthly mystery box giveaways, and even the opportunity to book a one-on-one video call with me about whatever is on your mind. If you've ever... wish you could be part of the conversation instead of