14 NPB players admit to trying their luck in illegal gambling

An additional 14 players across seven teams have admitted to wagering at illegal online casinos, the Nippon Professional Baseball Organization (NPB) announced on Feb. 27.

The revelation comes a week after the sports body requested all 12 of its member teams to conduct an investigation into their players and staff regarding internet gambling, which is prohibited in Japan.

The move followed a report that a player from the Orix Buffaloes had been betting in a poker tournament through an overseas online casino.

The NPB probe was conducted on a voluntary, self-reporting basis. The names of the players and the amounts of money involved were not disclosed.

According to the NPB, none of the players reported wagering on baseball games, which is prohibited by Japan’s criminal law and the organization’s internal regulations.

“We take this situation very seriously and will take firm action,” said Katsuhiko Nakamura, who heads the NPB.

The NPB decided to allow each team to determine how to discipline the players involved, including whether to file a police report.

Nakamura stated that each case will need to be handled individually, taking into account the amount of money involved.

The NPB and all the teams have regularly educated players on avoiding misconduct, including online gambling.

Nakamura stressed the need to do more to raise awareness among players by providing additional training sessions.

The recent NPB investigation focused on incidents from February 2022 onward, which are within the three-year statute of limitations.

Although the NPB chose to keep older cases undisclosed, it will conduct internal scrutiny into them as necessary.

The organization will also continue to encourage players to come forward and report any involvement in online casinos.

Illegal gambling is not new in recent years to the world of professional baseball.

In 2015, a baseball gambling scandal involving the Yomiuri Giants resulted in three players being suspended indefinitely.

In Major League Baseball, Shohei Ohtani’s former interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, was recently indicted by U.S. authorities for stealing money from Ohtani’s accounts to pay off illegal online sports gambling debts.

Mizuhara pled guilty to the charges and was sentenced to 57 months in prison and ordered to pay Ohtani $17 million (2.54 billion yen) in restitution and a fine of $1 million to the Internal Revenue Service.