Craig Carton knows the potential problems that could arise for Shohei Ohtani following the shocking illegal gambling allegations involving his ex-interpreter Ippei Mizuhara.
Carton – the Fox Sports host who was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison and forced repayment of $4.8 million in restitution after being caught running a ticket fraud scam as a means of repaying gambling debts – said Ohtani’s camp may have made a mistake by changing their story.
A spokesperson for Ohtani originally told ESPN that the Dodgers star had transferred funds to cover a debt of at least $4.5 million, which Mizuhara corroborated, but later “disavowed” Mizuhara’s account and Ohtani’s lawyers at Berk Brettler LLP instead claimed he was the “victim of a massive theft.”
“Ohtani’s camp made a real calculated mistake changing the original story,” Carton told The Post in a phone call Thursday morning. “At first, it was a friend with a gambling problem and Ohtani bailed him out, which is very believable to help a friend, as had been positioned to public.
“When they went back on that and said the money was stolen, they opened up Pandora’s box and now they have to really trust this interpreter.”
Following the lawyer’s statement, Mizuhara told ESPN he had been directed not to comment.
Neither Mizuhara nor Ohtani have been charged with any crimes.
“Now, you make the friend the focus of a criminal investigation,” Carton said. “Now, the allegation is fraud, theft and embezzlement. The more people start digging into that, the more it will come out.
“Maybe there’s a lot of smoke and no fire, but the fact that they made the guy available and did a complete 180 on the story at least causes concern.”
Multiple sources told ESPN that Ohtani does not gamble, and Mizuhara did not bet on baseball, instead focusing on international soccer, among other sports.
He allegedly placed his bets through a southern California bookie, one of the rare states where gambling is still not legalized.
Despite the report that no baseball bets were made, Carton’s experience has him concerned.
“The big problem is when the feds are done investigating this, if there’s a single bet on a baseball game, there’s big problems,” Carton said.
“The way a compulsive gambler thinks, which is not rational, is if you’re in a financial hole and you’re going to bet out of this hole, you would bet on what you know best, which in this case would be baseball, so it doesn’t take a strong leap of faith to consider that he might have bet on baseball.”
Carton, a former gambler himself who cleaned up his life and is a responsible gambling advocate for FanDuel, has unique insights into the mind of a problem gambler.
“In my experience, helping younger guys with problems like this, sure, you’re helping pay off the debt for now to fight another day, but a gambler has to seek legitimate help, or they will gamble again,” Carton said.
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Carton also commented Thursday on X about the issue, stating the action “warrants immediate suspension,” before couching that remark by saying any discipline would be decided by MLB comissioner Rob Manfred, as stated in Rule 21 of the MLB CBA.
MLB’s policy states: “Please be aware that violations of Major League Rule 21 or this Policy may result in discipline up to and including permanent ineligibility from Major League and Minor League Baseball, subject to the just cause provisions of the Basic Agreement.”
Carton wrote: “Betting on Non baseball events w/ an ILLEGAL Bookie violates Rule 21 of the CBA but is NOT an auto suspension – its at discretion of commissioner -there is precedent in which a player was fined and not suspended – unlikely Ohtani is suspended if the story is as presented.”
It’s a messy situation for Ohtani and MLB.
“The story isn’t going away anytime soon,” Carton concluded.