Sports betting in America. It's rampant and it's harmful. Should the government do anything about it?
Shoehi Ohtani has become the face of major league baseball. Now, it’s possible he will become the face of rampant sports betting in America.
Ohtani’s translator has been fired by Ohtani’s team, the Los Angeles Dodgers, for allegedly stealing millions of dollars from the slugger/pitching ace to cover debts incurred betting on sports. We don’t know whether Ohtani was aware of his friend’s debts and, if so, whether, contrary to the official line, he gave him money to pay them. Nor do we know whether some of the debts were actually the player’s. It seems fair, though, to note the implausibility of any bookmaker fronting the translator millions of dollars without some basis for believing that Ohtani was backing up the debt.
But I don’t want to speculate about Ohtani’s involvement, if any, or its ramifications. Instead, I want to talk about rampant sports betting in America — Americans legally wagered $119.84 billion on sports in 2023, according to the American Gaming Association, up more than 27 percent from 2022 — and about what I consider to be its harmful consequences for sports and those who can’t stop gambling on them.