By any standard, Mathew Bowyer has lived a remarkable life, and gambling has been a constant throughout.
Bowyer’s illegal bookmaking business was booming in 2023, taking in over a billion in bets from a clientele that included celebrities, athletes, and most notably, Ippei Mizuhara. He met Shohei Ohtahni‘s interpreter at a poker game, and both of their lives were forever changed.
Mizuhara, currently serving a 57-month sentence in federal prison for stealing $17 million from Ohtani to cover his betting losses, still owes Bowyer $24 million. He helped Bowyer’s business reach its apex by wagering $326 million through his website.
The irony is that Bowyer and Mizuhara are more alike than they are different. They severely struggled with gambling addiction, which ultimately landed them both in prison.
“Even as a bookmaker who made millions and millions of dollars, I still gambled more money than I had,” Bowyer told CasinoBeats in an exclusive interview on Tuesday. “I still bet more than I should have, and I actually owed bookmakers money several times where I couldn’t even pay myself, or I could have, but didn’t want to deplete my funds and waited until more money came in to be honorable and pay the debt.
“That tells you the scale and the problem of how addictive gambling is and what lengths you’ll go to to win it back, or try to.”
Bowyer, sentenced to 12 months and one day for running an illegal gambling business, was released in March after serving seven months. The 51-year-old father of five is now tasked with starting over. He’s also intent on helping others affected by gambling addiction moving forward.
Let’s get one thing out of the way. Would Bowyer do it all over again?
“Yes, because it led to meeting my wife and my kids and the path that I’m currently on,” he said.
He added, “Even though I ended up in prison and it was something very traumatic, and I’d never want to put my family through that again, I’m not really embarrassed or ashamed of what I did. I’m more embarrassed that I could have done it legally in a better light and in a better way, but I’m happy that I took the risk.”
The Path Forward
Bowyer candidly discussed his past transgressions and future hopes from his home in San Juan Capistrano, California, yesterday. The interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
CasinoBeats: How are you going to know if this new chapter of your life is a success? Is it the number of lives impacted? Is it the number of books sold or movies made?
Mathew Bowyer: That’s a great question, and the reason I answer that with a pause is because I have a tough time between finding a dopamine rush and winning, and at what cost. Life cannot be determined by likes, views, comments, and how many book sales you make.
The true thing that motivates me and makes me feel better when I lay down at night is impacting, inspiring people, and helping them, not only with addiction, but just being a better version of themselves. Those are the things that I’m trying to do in my life right now.
CB: What was the toughest thing about being in prison, and were there any particularly dark moments during those seven months?
Bowyer: The reality of being in prison, even though I was at a camp, was one of the most difficult things I’ve had to endure in my life. Mainly because my wife and kids and what I put them through, and then more importantly, just not being a father, being able to provide and protect.
I can try to make it right as best I can, which is what I’m trying to do, but that guilt will never go away. They handled it well, they’re strong, our family’s a great unit, and it did bring us together, so there are some positives to it. There were a lot of dark moments when you’re missing birthdays, Halloween, Christmas, Thanksgiving, and family time. The things that matter so much in your life.
CB: How old are your kids now?
Bowyer: 31, 27, 23, 15, and 5. They’re all amazing. I just became a granddad. My daughter is 31, and she just had her first baby in April. What an amazing experience that’s been, and the fact I got out in time for that. It was truly a blessing.
Behind the Booming Business of Bowyer’s Book
CB: What made your operation so successful compared with other bookmakers?
Bowyer: Customer service first and foremost, and then payouts, the way I handled paying people. Making it more of a VIP experience over other bookies. Paying out on Mondays, working with people when they couldn’t pay, working with people when they needed time, making it to where the anonymity of their relationship with my operation was important. If they’re hiding it from their wives or if they’re a doctor and they don’t want anyone to know when and how they’re paid, those are all things that were massively important.
CB: You also took higher limits, right?
Bowyer: I was willing to take bigger bets than most people, and that’s purely because I’m a gambler at heart and I had a gambling addiction, so it wasn’t like I ran that part as business-minded as I should have, but that’s only because I just had the desire to take more action and really fulfill the addiction side as opposed to the business.
CB: Now we’ve got to ask about the biggest bet you ever took.
Bowyer: I took multiple times a million dollars, but I had never had anyone ask me to bet bigger other than this one time. I took a $2 million wager. It was basically $10 million to make $2 million. It was a bet on the Cleveland Cavaliers-Golden State Warriors NBA Finals series, and this particular gentleman bet 10 to make 2. He lost and ended up stiffing me the entire $12 million. He owed me $2 million prior to that, so that was the biggest bet I ever took.
CB: At the height of your business, what type of volume were you doing then?
Bowyer: I was moving like $5 to $7 million throughout the country every week. I did a billion dollars in wagers in 2023, and that was the height of my business by far. A lot of that was clearly the $326 million Ippei Mizuhara bet through the website.
CB: I think you said you had 10 baseball players who were among your clients. Is that number accurate?
Bowyer: Yeah, I think it’s pretty accurate. I mean, it varied because I also had hockey guys. I had some celebrities that were on TV who weren’t athletes, but baseball player-wise, yeah, I think that’s probably accurate.
CB: You’ve always protected the anonymity of clients who were celebrities and athletes. Did you mention any of them in your book, Recalibrate?
Bowyer: Yes, just one because he passed away, and that’s Pete Rose. And, out of respect for Pete, we had a very good relationship, even though it was short-term, but he had a really big horse betting addiction. Pete was a great guy, and he bet with me for a little while through an agent in Las Vegas. I met with him several times at the sportsbook at the Palms. We had lunch and dinner a few times, but he was the only one that I spoke about.
Editor’s note: Bowyer’s second book, Controlled Chaos, will be available on Amazon and his website in approximately three weeks.
CB: You’re planning on writing a letter to apologize to Ippei Mizuhara. Is that due in part to both of you suffering from the same addiction and the fact that you can empathize?
Bowyer: Yes, it is. It’s to say sorry to him because had I known, I mean, listen, I love money. I loved the business I was in, even though it was illegal, because I love sports, I love gambling, and I love action. So when I was taking the bets, I truly thought it was Shohei Ohtani the entire time.
Well, let me rephrase that. I assumed it was, and then I saw the wire transfer. I never thought for a second that Ippei was stealing the money. I never thought that this would ever occur, and I definitely never wanted someone to go to prison because of me. Not that it’d be my fault, but I don’t want to aid and abet that situation. So for a guy to be sitting in prison for 57 months, and I have a part in that, whether I want to admit it or not, it hurts.
CB: He still reportedly owes you more than $20 million. Are you expecting to see any of that?
Bowyer: If I did, I’ll go to prison. So no, they made it very clear that I cannot. So, I’m owed $44 million right now on the streets, and $24 million of that is from him. I don’t expect to ever see a dollar from any of that because again, I’d be risking going back to prison. But I do believe that had he not gotten in trouble, he’d still be paying me to this day.
CB: What did you learn about gambling addiction from dealing with so many bettors and even your own experience over the years? What was kind of the light-bulb moment for you?
Bowyer: This is something that I think is probably the most important thing. Anyone who has access to money will go to any length necessary to continue to feed the addiction when it comes to gambling, and that’s the same between Ippei and a kid who’s 25 and works at Costco or Home Depot who has a gambling problem.
I know a lot of people because I’ve had to talk to a lot in the last two years since I got indicted. They reach out to me on my social channels, and I really walk them through, not jumping off a ledge per se, and help them with their addiction because I know what it feels like.
CB: How hard will it be for you not to gamble for two years? I know that’s a provision of your sentence.
Bowyer: It’s already hard. It’s gonna be hard, but I’ll tell you why it’s easy at the same time. It’s easy because there’s no way I’ll ever risk going back to prison for betting, or booking, or doing anything like that. There’s zero chance I’ll do that.
I can’t do that to my wife. I can’t do it to myself, and I sure as hell ain’t gonna do it to my children. It’s just an easy, hard no, but the real question is what’s going to happen in 1 year and 10 months when I have the opportunity, and I’m allowed to. I’m gonna have to sit down in front of the mirror and really make some serious decisions with myself, and then get approval from my amazing wife.
CB: Aside from Ohtani and Mizuhara, what’s the craziest story you can share from your booking and betting days?
Bowyer: Man, I have so many.
CB: We figured you did.
Bowyer: I had a woman who bet with me, and she had a $1,000 account. I’ll never forget it because it changed my whole booking pattern at the time. I had “no max” on a parlay payout because I had balls. I didn’t really care about people betting big money. If you bet $100, and it was a 10-teamer and I paid $50,000, I would take that bet. Well, she hit me on a 7-teamer in a football on a Sunday, and I don’t remember the exact amount, but it was like $100 to win $14,000 or something.
And this is a woman who bets $100, like, 3 times a week. I told myself this is why I’m not DraftKings and FanDuel. It changed my whole pattern because I’ll never see even 10% of that back the way she bets. So I just changed it and put a max on parlay payouts.
Bowyer on the Fallout at Resorts World
High-stakes gambler R.J. Cipriani filed a civil Racketeer Influenced & Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act lawsuit against Resorts World Las Vegas in December 2025. He alleged that Bowyer was among several bookmakers engaged in money laundering at Resorts World.
“I’m not happy that Matt Bowyer has to be going to jail possibly when there’s 30 other bookies that were gambling at these casinos,” Cipriani said in the weeks leading up to Bowyer’s sentencing. “Nothing happened to them, but more importantly there were dirty executives … and nothing happened to them at all.”
CB: How do you feel about R.J. Cipriani after everything that transpired?
Bowyer: I hate playing the victim in any circumstance, but there’s no doubt that he is a person that has not only put me in the position that I’m in, and that sounds like victim mentality, but it’s reality, and he wants me and Owen (Hanson) to thank him, by the way.
I’ve seen him on podcasts, and he says he did me a favor. He’s a person that clearly likes to stir up a lot of problems and drama, and I believe that he is a very dangerous man. Because he will go to any length to get what he needs accomplished, so I steer clear of him, or I try to. I don’t want my name to ever come out of his mouth, even though it does quite often, and how do I feel? I’m just surprised that he’s alive, based on the amount of people that he has actually completely run over with a truck.
CB: And the same question as it relates to the Resorts World executives?
Bowyer: That’s a different feeling. I don’t blame them. They did what a lot of people would do in their position. They had a brand new casino, and they were struggling. They had a guy in me, who had contact with a lot of people that gamble at a high level. They’re going to come in and boost their numbers and get them going and bring in tons of revenue, which we did. It was $24 million between Damien (LeForbes‘) crew and my crew and all the people we brought in.
(Former Resorts World President) Scott Sibella took the fall for all of this, too. Every casino in Las Vegas and even throughout the country knew I was a bookmaker. So I understand why he got fired. I just felt like he caught the brunt of what’s been happening for 20-plus years.
CB: What would you tell a young entrepreneur – maybe a guy who’s 16 and running a book and poker ring out of his mom’s house as you did – that wants to follow in your footsteps? What advice would you give him as a 51-year-old?
Bowyer: The first thing I would say to a young person is to take an enormous amount of risk, but educated risk, of course. And think about everything you do in a sequence. I have a rule in my life that I live by. It’s actually driven by Suzy Welch, and that’s the 10:10:10 rule. For me, it’s 5:5:5 because I don’t think in the long term. Every decision you make, whatever it is, business-wise, relationships, ask yourself a question: “How will this affect me in 5 days, 5 months, and 5 years?”
Then every decision you make will be impacted and that much better by thinking it through before you do it. As a young human being, male or female, we don’t do that. We just react, and that’s what gets us in trouble.
