[JustinD]

Originally Posted by G1911

Perhaps a stupid question, but

If Ippei made something like $300K-$500K from the ball team and Ohtani per year, it is realistic that he would even be able to rack up $16M of gambling debt? Obviously an illegal bookie is not really regulated, but I would think that, you know, after the first million of debt they would stop taking your bets and that for such large scale clients they would make sure you have some ability to actually pay. It does not make sense to me that they would allow such massively impossible debt without a guarantee or some contact with Ohtani. Surely the bookie knows the translator doesn't have that kind of cash himself.

Is this not how it was discovered?

My recollection is that the bookie was bragging about Ohtani being a client to drum up more business as the wires were coming from Othani's account and he could show the sender to clients. A client was the initial whistleblower after the name was dropped to him.

If he was gaining more business and the debts were paid by the stolen money, then why on earth would he limit his betting? There was no debt owed to the bookie, he was paid in stolen money by Mizuhara. He obviously also had to leave a giant paper trail in his panic by sending wires as it was the only access. If he personally walked into a branch for cash he would have been found out immediately.