Ohtani and the interpreter

[metirish]

Interpretor charged with stealing $16 million from Ohtani over several years

[metirish]

Absolutely wild

[bmfc1]

How was he such a huge gambler and a thief but he restrained himself from betting on baseball?

[Edgy MD]

Maybe his bookmaker wasn't willing to take bets from him on action where he might have an inside track.

Or maybe it's a lot harder to cover your tracks when you're tracking through your own house.

[MFS62]

I'd like to be in a position where I wouldn't notice if someone stole $16 million from me.
Later

[metirish]

Yeah, seriously, hard to believe he's that naive

[Frayed Knot]

NBA player Jontay Porter banned for life over a gambling scandal.

[Frayed Knot]

Speaking of sports gambling in general ...

Now that the leagues went from a no-dating policy with gambling to going to bed with it on the first date (and second and third and ...)
it's not surprising that the ads for it -- all over the place during any game -- are not only common but are playing to the lowest common denominator.
Their biggest come-on is to invite players to "maximize their profit incentive" which basically means to get in on one of their 'parlay' bets where, in order
to to win the bet, you need multiple conditions to all go your way. So where a win under those conditions would 'maximize your profit' the odds of that
actually happening go way down, but of course they don't say that. Many parlay bets are essentially sucker bets which suck in the amateurs and are,
from what I've read, more common with these new legal platforms than they ever were via those supposedly sleazy old school illegal bookies.

[Edgy MD]

I guess that suggests the proportion of suckers in the betting pool is up.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Money always talks the loudest. That's also why practically half of the teams now make the playoffs.

[Frayed Knot]

I guess that suggests the proportion of suckers in the betting pool is up.

Almost certainly, yes.
More unseasoned newcomers drawn in by the newly legal status in their area and the newly formed association
with their sport which used to shun it. And, 'Hey look, here's a chance to "maximize my profit". The gambling
version of "Supersize it!"

[MFS62]

Maybe also a TWiB moment - Ohtani's homer against the Mets broke Hidecki Matsui's record for most career home runs by a Japanese born hitter.
Later

[Frayed Knot]

The other come-on I've noticed from these in-game gambling ads is some version of: 'make one $5 bet and get 150 (or 200)
dollars worth of 'free' bets'.
I have no idea what they mean by this and, being a non-gambler, I don't really care to know. But would I REALLY get
a couple hundred dollars worth of bets using the house's money just for making one tiny bet upon signing up or are there
a bunch of read-the-fine-print strings attached?

I'm betting on the latter.

[Edgy MD]

I dunno, but it's not like gambling interests haven't made many a fortune by using freebies to get newbies into the house.

[Frayed Knot]

Yup.
And I also doubt it's a free as they make it sound.

[Edgy MD]

Padres infielder Tucupita Marcano facing a potential lifetime ban for gambling, according to reporting by The Wall Street Journal.

Apparently, the violations occurred while he was with the Pirates last season.

[metirish]

Permanently ineligible per MLB , also

https://x.com/Feinsand/status/179799349 ... 7CsaA&s=19

[Edgy MD]

Sheesh, apart from Marcano, four more guys lose a year.

MLB reaping what they've sown, but they don't care, because players are easier to dispose of than the profits they're getting from being in bed with gambling syndicates.

[metirish]

Exactly, this is happening a lot in European soccer too, Lucas Paqueta has been found guilty of betting on himself to get booked in games for his team West Ham United, he could not only cost himself a huge $$$ move to Manchester City ,but now might be banned for life , euro soccer is rife with betting companies

[MFS62]

Couldn't read the WSJ article (paywall) but I had read he did it while on the IL.
Didn't he think the rules still applied?
The rules are posted on every major and minor league clubhouse and reviewed every Spring Training.
There is no excuse.
Later

[Benjamin Grimm]

Yeah, it really makes no sense. If you have a jones to gamble, do it on anything else but baseball. There are certainly many alternatives available.

[Edgy MD]

I don't claim that MLB's relationship should excuse the players.

But neither do I think that the players' poor decisions should absolve MLB from their open complicity.

As for "many alternatives available," it's often the alternatives that get gamblers in the hole, intensifying the pressure to go into betting what they know in order to get out of it.

[Cowtipper]

These are the guys getting CAUGHT. Imagine how many aren't. Imagine how many are throwing games right now. This is going to be MLB's next big scandal.

[kcmets]

This new thread content should be split and renamed...

...it's gonna be a really long one!

[kcmets]

Imagine how many are throwing games right now.

Imagine how many Mets threw games in May and how much
money they and their families won!?!