Less than two weeks after the ball dropped on New Year’s Eve, there were clear indications that 2025 could be a year of scandal in the sports betting industry.
On 12 January, federal law enforcement apprehended Shane Hennen at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas as he attempted to board a one-way to Colombia. Hennen, according to prosecutors, tried to flee the country three days before a plea deadline with the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York. Before month’s end, reports surfaced that federal prosecutors began probing Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier for a pattern of suspicious wagers nearly two years earlier.
By October, the two cases converged when Rozier and Hennen were among a group of nearly three dozen defendants indicted in a sweeping takedown. Joseph Nocella Jr., interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, described the arrests as the largest dismantling of a gambling enterprise since the historic PASPA decision in 2018.
The intertwined cases spawned a debate on whether the legal US sports betting market is responsible for detecting untoward integrity activity that previously went unchecked in the shadows of the black market. From dramatic sentencings to pre-dawn raids to bounced pitches and multi-million fines, 2025 offered an assortment of headlines on nefarious sports betting schemes. Here is our review of the integrity landscape for the US sports betting market in 2025.
Courtroom drama for Ohtani interpreter
Three days before the Super Bowl, Ippei Mizuhara learned his fate in a Southern California courtroom. Mizuhara, the former interpreter of Shohei Ohtani, received a 57-month sentence for embezzling nearly $17 million from the MLB superstar. The disgraced interpreter used the stolen funds to repay a portion of his sports betting debts with Matt Bowyer, an illegal bookmaker.
Mizuhara reported to prison in June, two months before Bowyer faced sentencing before the same judge. U.S. District Judge John W. Holcomb approved an eight-level downward departure that knocked Bowyer’s sentence down to 12 months and one day. Bowyer’s enterprise accepted roughly 19,000 wagers from Mizuhara, amounting to a handle of $325 million. Mizuhara still owed Bowyer about $24 million at the time of his arrest, an amount that likely will never be recovered.
The narrative also stretched to Las Vegas, where several Strip casinos faced regulatory scrutiny over loose anti-money laundering practises. Lax oversight from the casinos allowed Bowyer and several other bookies to launder millions through the Strip properties.
Bowyer and another bookie, Damien Leforbes, each accumulated net losses of $10 million at a property identified in court records as “Casino A.” The casino fits the profile of Resorts World Las Vegas, a resort that opened in 2021 at a cost of $4.3 billion, the highest amount in city history.
Bowyer scandal a “clarion call” for change
Over a 10-week period in the spring, the Nevada Gaming Commission approved multi-million dollar fines against three major Strip casinos: MGM Grand, Wynn Las Vegas and RWLV. While Bowyer gambled at all three, he spent most of his time at RWLV following the COVID-19 pandemic. In one notable excursion, RWLV flew Bowyer and his entourage to Dallas for a Cowboys game, where they watched from a luxury suite.
Before the subsequent NFL Sunday, Bowyer saw his southern California villa raided by the FBI.
Bowyer managed to gamble millions at RWLV per visit despite not possessing the requisite source of funds. One executive, at a company AML meeting, redacted Bowyer’s occupation to make it appear that he did not derive any income as a bookmaker. While license revocation appeared to be off the table, ex-Stratosphere CEO Richard Schuetz felt that RWLV should have faced a severe penalty. Schuetz, a former California state gambling regulator, is a prominent advisor in the gaming industry.
“I would want to disincentivize them from ever thinking about doing something like that again,” Schuetz told iGB. “I would want to inflict maximum pain.”
The commission imposed a $10.5 million fine against RWLV, the second-largest in state history. Weeks after the hearing, MGM Resorts agreed to a settlement of $8.5 million. Unlike RWLV, MGM accepted wrongdoing for violating the company’s AML internal controls. Wynn Resorts, the third casino of the trio, received a $5.5 million fine in May.
Shortly after Bowyer reported to prison in October, a fourth settled with the state. Nevada regulators approved a $7.8 million fine against Caesars Entertainment over AML failings related to Bowyer’s activity.
Numerous commissioners called for widespread reform, most notably former lieutenant governor Brian Krolicki, who said that the scandals represent a “clarion call” throughout the Strip that the regulations must be followed.
All eyes on Brooklyn in NBA betting scandal
Of the three NBA figures arrested on 23 Oct, only Rozier remained on an active roster at the time of the arrests. But Rozier, a longtime NBA veteran, was not the most prominent name in the probe.
Federal prosecutors charged Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups with accepting a payment to participate in a mob-backed rigged poker game. Billups, who pleaded not guilty, also matches the description of an unindicted co-conspirator who allegedly leaked intel to gamblers that the Blazers planned to tank a game. Several defendants are also reportedly linked to an alleged point shaving scandal in college basketball that is ongoing.
Following the indictments, another sport became ensnared in a separate probe launched by the same office. Two Cleveland Guardians pitchers, Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz, were charged by federal prosecutors with deliberately rigging pitches to ensure the outcome of a series of microbets. Within 48 hours of their indictments, MLB announced a deal with a host of national sportsbooks to reduce limits on microbets to $200.
All told at least six current or former athletes in the case have appeared at the Brooklyn federal courthouse over the last month.
Has legal US betting eroded the integrity of sports?
Since the arrests, a heated debate ensued on whether the legalization of sports wagering has made it more challenging to protect the integrity of the game.
Chris Christie, a former New Jersey governor and lead plaintiff in the PASPA case, contends that the regulated market is still working. US Rep. Paul Tonko (D-NY), an author of a proposed federal framework on sports gambling, vehemently disagrees. Tonko wrote a letter to the NBA in October asserting that “voluntary self-policing” by the leagues and state regulators should be deemed ineffective.
“While reasonable people can debate the specifics of federal standards on the sports betting industry, it is abundantly clear that the exclusively state-based regulatory approach is fundamentally flawed and will continue to jeopardize the integrity of our sports and the public health of our citizens,” Tonko wrote.
The debate will continue into 2026 and perhaps long thereafter. The integrity of sports and the shape of legal wagering might hang in the balance.
Matt Rybaltowski
Matt is primarily responsible for long-form feature coverage on complex sports betting scandals. He also provides coverage on finance, M&A and other technological developments.
Multiple betting scandals in 2025 leave regulators, leagues on edge