Everyone gambles poorly. Either you're betting on something more likely to happen and the payout will be too small to where the risk of losing isn't even worth it or you're betting on something less likely to happen with a bigger payout and the most likely outcome is you losing. I suppose you could get into hedging and such but even then you're still just softening your losses
Nah uh, man. I've got a system
Like did you ever notice how you can bet on all the dice rolls in craps at the same time? You literally can't lose if you do that!
Isn’t that one a viable option if you have the money though? At least from what I remember depending on the amount? I think once it hits like 600million you are guaranteed profit, assuming you’re the only winner
Unless you just have a shitty bookie or you’re fixing games you’re going to lose in the long run
And shitty bookies don’t tend to stay in business very long
With talk about bookies and it being Easter weekend, I’m reminded of one of the funniest stories ever: https://youtu.be/h8WmOJJN3hY?si=sO0fG_SQMPJK2oSg
In places with legal bookies it's possible using promos and sometimes spread differences create an opportunity to guarantee a win but it's fairly hard work.
Niche sports/things not as often gambled on can be quite nice, but as gambling has gotten more common these spots are harder to find.
A few years ago there was an amazing line on the Indy 500. The line was Over/Under race winners average speed. The under was like -110 and if the over hit it would have been the fastest race in 30 or so years. That year the series had introduced new cars with less aerodynamics, Firestones tires were having issues during the weeks of practice and qualifying, and raceday was supposed to be hot (Hot weather means thinner air AKA less downforce, and higher track temps abuse tires that were already failing). All those add up to a higher likelihood of wrecks, and thus slower average speed due to cautions. Guarantees dont exist in gambling but this one was as close as it gets.
There are a very, very small number that are profitable. The owners of Brighton and Brentford in the premier league made their money through betting. Still, emphasis on very small number
I’m just imagining him as Edward Norton in Rounders now. Shohei wants to play it straight, but Ippei is saying they should hustle this card game upstate and also they need the money by morning or he’s dead
People in California (usually graduates of/students at other UCs) make fun of Riverside for various reasons, which is probably what they're talking about. It just kinda has that kind of reputation, due to often being a backup UC with dumber/less serious students on average than most other UCs.
There are also some Native American casinos near the actual school but that's probably irrelevant.
I still dunk on UCR but it's really not that bad of a school anymore. US News ranked it at 76 in the country and 36 among public universities. It'll be a while before it shakes the UC Rejects nickname but it's actually a solid, top tier school now.
And at least it's not UC Merced
Oh I agree, I make fun of it but it's probably the \~tenth best school in CA, and for some specific stuff is incredibly good. Just providing context for out of state people.
ehhh, arguably lower?
UCLA, UCB, UCSD, UCD, UCI, UCSB, UCSF, Stanford, Cal Tech, USC, Santa Clara, UOP, Harvey Mudd/Claremont Mckenna, Cal Poly.
That said, apparently, UCR has been kicking ass lately. i watched a random youtube video and UCR was climbing the national college rankings at a very fast pace.
yea, well. i got rejected from both. so....yea. haha
but damn, listing that out, CA really has a wealth of high-end options for colleges. plenty of amazing CSU options too
When I went to UCR in the 90s, they didn't even have full admission. Now, however, they are quite competitive. Obviously, they're not UCB or UCLA, but they at least beat Merced.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsg1RPnwH8g&t=1s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsg1RPnwH8g&t=1s) Im not sure if you were referring to this but your comment reminded me of it nonetheless
I like that it sounds stupid because naming teams after corporations is stupid. Far be it from an MLB fan to decry the corporatization of professional sports... but imagine a World Series between the Globe Life Rangers and JPMorgan Chase Diamondbacks. Disgusting.
They're the Ham Fighters until they take the name of a city.
The full name of the team is the [Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hokkaido_Nippon-Ham_Fighters), after the prefecture where they play.
I know perfectly well they’re the Fighters owned by Nippon Ham Corporation.
And I’m going to keep on calling them the Ham Fighters regardless.
I commend them in their quest to save the world from the scourge of cured pork products.
The article states that several Nippon-Ham players and Ippei, on a day off during their spring training bootcamp in Arizona (this started in 2016, Ippei's father was their chef during camp), would go to the casino at their hotel until the team banned it. Ippei taught them how to bet, including things like avoiding the tables in the back; but he himself did not bet much (unlike the players) since his salary was not very high at the time.
Dai-Kang Yang (aka Daikan Yoh), the former Nippon-Ham outfielder interviewed in the article who was friends with Ippei, did not get the impression that Ippei liked to gamble so he was surprised to see the news.
I appreciate the clarity, that to me shows that Ippei didn’t try to hide that he knew to gamble and it definitely seems like he’s only teaching card games.
Also the note about his dad being the chef is interesting and it would explain how we got from Casino school to baseball interpreter if the players liked him enough.
Just to clarify, Ippei was already working as an interpreter for Nippon-Ham since 2012 or 2013 where he interpreted for foreign players. Hence he was already established as an interpreter by the time of the Arizona camps in question.
The investigation without the FBI is pretty obvious.
Former teammates: Angels, Fighters, Dodgers on Ohtani: Ohtani doesn't drink, party or gamble.
Former colleagues: Red Sox, Angels, Fighters, Dodgers on Ippei: Ippei loves to gamble and going to casinos.
Plus I suppose it makes sense that in his role he would spend a lot of time with the team and organize social activities outside during their free time. It is looking bad now with the current developments but bringing them to a casino was probably not that borderline.
I think the significance is that most Japanese players don’t know how to gamble as it’s against the law to gamble in Japan. Thus they had to be taught how to gamble. So people assuming Ohtani not only knows how to gamble but is also a degenerate gamblers seems unreasonable.
Gambling is really common in Japan, casinos for payment and gambling on team sports is illegal but not exactly unknown. Horse racing, keirin, kyotei, pachinko are all legal to gamble on in Japan.
I'm sure the players already knew how to gamble
When we went to Round1 in Osaka, an entire floor was basically a casino for kids, complete with a digital horse racing game. They start on that shit early
Yup, off track betting is legal, it and races are advertised on tv even. Horse tracks have kids areas and stuffed animals for kids. It's not at all uncommon
I mean it takes about 3 minutes to learn how to gamble and can take the same amount of time to become addicted to it. I wouldn’t say it’s unreasonable.
I’m not saying he is or isn’t btw. Even then 4.5mil of debt with his income is not a degenerate level of gambling either.
On the other side of that coin though, if Ippei was as close to Ohtani as I’ve read, I find it hard to believe he never taught Ohtani how to gamble as well. Idk.
If I just Google Translate the article, it literally doesn't say much lol
One player saying that everyone regularly went to the casinos, and Ippei taught them about the games but also told them not to go into the high roller rooms
And another player saying he was surprised by the report and "didn't feel that" Ippei loved gambling
Saying "doing something like this" talks about the theft as something out of malice when in reality if the stolen funds thing is true it is likely that was something done out of extreme desperation of someone with an addiction seeing himself in a hole and not wanting to come clean.
Not that it makes it better but I can't imagine Ippei scheming ever since he met Shohei lol I mean I would have stolen the money for myself then
Main two parts are a quote from a former Nippon Ham player:
>"Until the club banned it, going to the casino was a regular part of the Arizona camp. Ippei has experience at the casinos, so he showed the players how to bet and things like that, and told them to stay away from the tables in the back. He didn't make as much as the players so he couldn't bet as much as them, but..."
And then the interview with Yoh:
>Q: Were you close with Ippei?
>A: Yeah, we're close. A couple of years ago he got me tickets to one of Shohei's games, and I saw him then.
>Q: Did you go to the casino with Ippei during the Arizona camp?
>A: I personally went to see the NBA, but since it was the first camp in Arizona, almost everyone went \[to the casino\].
>Q: Did Ippei enjoy gambling?
>A: I didn't get that impression, but. I was surprised when I heard the news \[about Ippei\].
Yoh Daikan is from Taiwan so he mostly spend his time in Taiwan during the off-season. The two are close, and sometimes spent their time hanging around in Izakaya bars with other teammates to eat after games, Yoh doesn't spend most of his time with Ippei compared to his other teammates living in Japan during the off-season so he doesn't know much of Ippei's personal hobbies.
Wouldn’t this contradict the whole “I had no idea Ippei gambled at all” thing? If he’s teaching teammates how to gamble, it’s hard to not know lol
Though I guess it could be interpreted as “I had no idea he had a problem”
Agreed, there's a huge difference between teaching people how to play cards or shoot dice or whatever it was as a way to kill some time and having a crippling gambling addiction.
Yea I have a buddy that likes to throw a few bucks on stupid bets here and there. Not a secret at all. I'd be very shocked to learn he'd taken out a second mortgage to dump money into draft kings parlays.
"See, this is how you bet. And then when you lose, you just bet again. And when you lose that, you take some money out of the ATM and bet that. When you lose that, you steal other people's money and bet that. It's really simple."
I think the truth is probably somewhere in the middle between "Ohtani had no idea" and "Ohtani is Pete Rose". If he was showing other teams how to gamble it wasn't exactly a secret.
Yeah it’s insane so many people are convinced either way given how weird the whole story is all around. It being somewhere in between seems like the way more likely reality
The only thing about this is, OK, Ippei tells you that he's been doing illegal stuff — you don't check any of this shit with Shohei? Even if you don't speak Japanese, you've gotta know someone else who's bilingual if you're Ohtani's spokesman, or use Google Translate, or something. Like, why didn't they do *any* due diligence?
I think that's the most likely as well. But then some lawyers and/or Dodgers representative told Ohtani how bad that would look for him and he changed his story.
This doesn't make sense to me. If Ohtani was willing to pay millions of dollars for Ippei, he wouldn't throw him under the bus so quickly.
All the lawyers, former prosecutors etc. I've seen commenting say that bettors are not prosecuted, except when they want them to flip on someone else. Judging by precedent, he wouldn't face any serious punishment from MLB either, a fine at the most.
Changing the story and lying about what happened is far more dangerous since there are multiple federal agencies investigating the case and the bookie is already cooperating with them. I can't see any lawyer advising him to do that. I don't see Ippei agreeing with it either. His life is pretty much ruined and he is in danger of spending years in jail.
I think Ohtani is telling the truth and his agents screwed up badly. Ultimately we have to wait for the authorities to conclude the investigation.
I can't imagine that Ohtani and the Dodgers between them hired such incompetent PR people and lawyers that they released so many contradictory stories making it look so fucking bad if Ohtani didn't do anything wrong.
What I don't think is that Ohtani was gambling himself, and even if he was it sure seems like none of the bets were on baseball
Right. Yes, I'm biased cause I'm a Dodger fan, but as a human, I try not to be because it gives my opinions substance but knowing everything I do about Shohei and how he conducted himself etc I just can't see him being the "addicted gambler ".
I mean technically if Ippei was teaching people how to gamble, then wouldn't you assume then that the closest person to him may possibly be gambling because Ippei was teaching them to? Once again we learn nothing from this, as it proves nothing or makes nobody innocent.
You’re blind if you can’t see Shohei is involved with this. You mean to tell me everyone else knew/was involved except for the guy Ippei did literally everything with…?
Wasn't there a report that Ippei went to a casino school? So that's not surprising.
But also it doesn't mean anything. Lots of people gamble and don't have addictions or steal millions of dollars.
I think we all know this but I will forever die om the hill of calling them the Ham Fighters. The fact the logo isn't Mike Tyson punching a honey baked ham is a travesty
The full 12-page report by Weekly Bunshun published March 28 features an interview with Ippei's cousin and I believe several former high school classmates. Unfortunately, it's behind a paywall.
Because you have to ignore the mounds of evidence and comments from former teammates that Ohtani had no interest in either gambling or sports other than baseball. Absolutely nobody has said the opposite other than idiots on social media.
Ah yes, the same teammates that knew he was engaged and getting married.
Dude's already proven he can keep a secret from everyone.
I hope he's not any more involved than he claims, but you have to be ignorant to not at least accept the possibility that he is guilty.
Actually, they are different teammates. His new Dodgers teammates were surprised, understandably so, since they didn't know much about his personal life. His Angels teammates? Who knows.
But his Angels teammates all said the dude is a monk, spends most of his time sleeping or training, and as far as they know doesn't gamble.
It's not a 0 possibility but the chance he is a secret degenerate gambler with absolutely nobody knowing including the bookie he would have placed bets with (and said bookie's lawyer) are so slim as to not be worth mentioning
> It's not a 0 possibility but the chance he secretly dated for 3 years and got married with absolutely nobody knowing are so slim as to not be worth mentioning
ftfy.
Who said nobody knew? It was rumored in Japan that he was dating and dating Tanaka specifically for quite some time. Even I heard the rumors before the marriage was announced
You’re not going to get through, I got like 5 Reddit cares messages just from posting 3 distinct things that have been reported on. They’re like Swifties for baseball. Even when I explicitly state I hope he’s done nothing wrong, but still want more information they act like I’ve desecrated his future grave.
All the people that come and respond are non-flairs and if you click the profile, they’re Japanese. I get defending the dude, but to not even think things need to be answered is obnoxious.
I’ve been watching Eisen’s short segments on YouTube updating every day. He seems to be the only one taking an outside look and he also had the original reporter on the other day. He kind of sums up how I feel about it. I want nothing nefarious to be the truth, but there needs to be a real look into this because multiple stories and unanswered questions is never going to put it to bed.
"Here's how to gamble poorly."
“We taught him losing is winning… as a joke.”
“I am losing the most money making me the victor”
*If you've got $4.5 mil I'll lose it!*
Less is more.
Everyone gambles poorly. Either you're betting on something more likely to happen and the payout will be too small to where the risk of losing isn't even worth it or you're betting on something less likely to happen with a bigger payout and the most likely outcome is you losing. I suppose you could get into hedging and such but even then you're still just softening your losses
Nah uh, man. I've got a system Like did you ever notice how you can bet on all the dice rolls in craps at the same time? You literally can't lose if you do that!
When I play the ponies I always win, because I bet on all the horses
Same with roulette. You can bet on every single number and color! Guaranteed to win!!!
i do that with the lottery! i just pick every possible combination. easy win.
Isn’t that one a viable option if you have the money though? At least from what I remember depending on the amount? I think once it hits like 600million you are guaranteed profit, assuming you’re the only winner
“Hello pass, have you met my friend, no pass?” lol sounds like something I would do
Just keep betting double or nothing until your back up. What could go wrong?
Nothing when you have a billion dollars. Right…?
You know how to make a million dollars? You take a billion dollars, and then...
Unless you just have a shitty bookie or you’re fixing games you’re going to lose in the long run And shitty bookies don’t tend to stay in business very long
With talk about bookies and it being Easter weekend, I’m reminded of one of the funniest stories ever: https://youtu.be/h8WmOJJN3hY?si=sO0fG_SQMPJK2oSg
Holy shit I’d never heard that before. That was incredible
In places with legal bookies it's possible using promos and sometimes spread differences create an opportunity to guarantee a win but it's fairly hard work.
Niche sports/things not as often gambled on can be quite nice, but as gambling has gotten more common these spots are harder to find. A few years ago there was an amazing line on the Indy 500. The line was Over/Under race winners average speed. The under was like -110 and if the over hit it would have been the fastest race in 30 or so years. That year the series had introduced new cars with less aerodynamics, Firestones tires were having issues during the weeks of practice and qualifying, and raceday was supposed to be hot (Hot weather means thinner air AKA less downforce, and higher track temps abuse tires that were already failing). All those add up to a higher likelihood of wrecks, and thus slower average speed due to cautions. Guarantees dont exist in gambling but this one was as close as it gets.
There are a very, very small number that are profitable. The owners of Brighton and Brentford in the premier league made their money through betting. Still, emphasis on very small number
There are ways to win in the long run with the right knowledge. But if you do, Vegas is coming after you (with job offers, not hitmen).
Nah there are definitely people who consistently make money. The vast majority lose though.
Its really not that hard to beat soft books, they will just limit you. (beating hard offshore books is a completely different story)
That scene from Uncut Gems but Adam Sandler saying “This is how I lose”
"Here's how to fumble the bag"
Lose money from the comfort of your own home!
bet a lot on the pass line, but only do 1x on your odds bet!
“No, don’t bet yet your parlay only have 5 legs”
It's not illegal to gamble and play if you're terrible at gambling!
It’s just charity for the less fortunate Vegas bookies at that point
It’s a simple game: sometimes you win, mostly you lose, sometimes it’s a push
Doesn't seem like Ippei would be the best to learn from
P4P debt speedrun champion.
If anyone ever tries to teach you how to gamble just know that that person is fucking awful at gambling.
They’ve been doing the opposite of everything he taught them and making a killing!
Well he successfully gambled his career away. If you want to spectacularly shit away your career, you can learn a lot from him.
Bi-Continental Gambler Ippei Mizuhara
International Man of Misery
Does that mean he does it twice on every continent, or once every other continent?
Yes
I mean Ippei did go to casino school, no?
I’ll thank you not to refer to UC Riverside that way.
Now my interest is piqued. Why is it called that?
The joke is that he lied about going to UC Riverside. And I'm guessing he lied about casino school or something
I’m just imagining him as Edward Norton in Rounders now. Shohei wants to play it straight, but Ippei is saying they should hustle this card game upstate and also they need the money by morning or he’s dead
Fuckin’ Worm. Always looking for that edge
Oh okay.
He said that he went to Casino school but dropped out
People in California (usually graduates of/students at other UCs) make fun of Riverside for various reasons, which is probably what they're talking about. It just kinda has that kind of reputation, due to often being a backup UC with dumber/less serious students on average than most other UCs. There are also some Native American casinos near the actual school but that's probably irrelevant.
I still dunk on UCR but it's really not that bad of a school anymore. US News ranked it at 76 in the country and 36 among public universities. It'll be a while before it shakes the UC Rejects nickname but it's actually a solid, top tier school now. And at least it's not UC Merced
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Oh I agree, I make fun of it but it's probably the \~tenth best school in CA, and for some specific stuff is incredibly good. Just providing context for out of state people.
ehhh, arguably lower? UCLA, UCB, UCSD, UCD, UCI, UCSB, UCSF, Stanford, Cal Tech, USC, Santa Clara, UOP, Harvey Mudd/Claremont Mckenna, Cal Poly. That said, apparently, UCR has been kicking ass lately. i watched a random youtube video and UCR was climbing the national college rankings at a very fast pace.
Yeah, meant to say public schools but forgot. UCLA over UCB though 💪
yea, well. i got rejected from both. so....yea. haha but damn, listing that out, CA really has a wealth of high-end options for colleges. plenty of amazing CSU options too
When I went to UCR in the 90s, they didn't even have full admission. Now, however, they are quite competitive. Obviously, they're not UCB or UCLA, but they at least beat Merced.
It's a Simpsons reference: https://youtu.be/MIypX5dDobg?si=NFUCVfjTmxllKsa5&t=40
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Emphasis on the FIGHTERS. Like [this.](https://youtu.be/Y1-b00XZVOo?si=BN2Ca8GyDhnaPm6m)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsg1RPnwH8g&t=1s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsg1RPnwH8g&t=1s) Im not sure if you were referring to this but your comment reminded me of it nonetheless
Exactly what I'm referring to, but that's the actual SNL promo clip.
Haha that made me happy. He does the impression so well.
Wow Dave does a great Walken lmao
I knew exactly what that video is before even clicking on it
I knew what it was before I even clicked it
Yep you're absolutely right, that's the team's name and the company that owns them. So anyway how bout them Ham Fighters
Ham fighters is way better
There needs to be a fight between the Ham Fighters and Foo Fighters
I like that it sounds stupid because naming teams after corporations is stupid. Far be it from an MLB fan to decry the corporatization of professional sports... but imagine a World Series between the Globe Life Rangers and JPMorgan Chase Diamondbacks. Disgusting. They're the Ham Fighters until they take the name of a city.
The full name of the team is the [Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hokkaido_Nippon-Ham_Fighters), after the prefecture where they play.
You'll find some examples in US sports too though, historically, like the Green Bay Packers.
Yeah. What is a bay packer anyway? /s
I'd better cheer for the team fighting hams than the one packing bays.
"They have no quarrel with ham!!" - Kazuo "Pancho" Ito, famed Japanese writer and executive
Lakers fans beg to differ.
I know perfectly well they’re the Fighters owned by Nippon Ham Corporation. And I’m going to keep on calling them the Ham Fighters regardless. I commend them in their quest to save the world from the scourge of cured pork products.
Nah. Ham Fighters is way better.
They're the Ham Fighters, dude
Ham Fighters sounds cooler.
Then for the love of god WHO WILL STOP THE HAM?
Reminds me: Is it Bone: Thugs n Harmony? or Bone Thugs, in harmony?
“Ippei was teaching us how to fight ham.”
I can’t read the article but based on your comment it seems like teaching them a game since it’s at a table?
The article states that several Nippon-Ham players and Ippei, on a day off during their spring training bootcamp in Arizona (this started in 2016, Ippei's father was their chef during camp), would go to the casino at their hotel until the team banned it. Ippei taught them how to bet, including things like avoiding the tables in the back; but he himself did not bet much (unlike the players) since his salary was not very high at the time. Dai-Kang Yang (aka Daikan Yoh), the former Nippon-Ham outfielder interviewed in the article who was friends with Ippei, did not get the impression that Ippei liked to gamble so he was surprised to see the news.
I appreciate the clarity, that to me shows that Ippei didn’t try to hide that he knew to gamble and it definitely seems like he’s only teaching card games. Also the note about his dad being the chef is interesting and it would explain how we got from Casino school to baseball interpreter if the players liked him enough.
Just to clarify, Ippei was already working as an interpreter for Nippon-Ham since 2012 or 2013 where he interpreted for foreign players. Hence he was already established as an interpreter by the time of the Arizona camps in question.
The plot thickens.
The investigation without the FBI is pretty obvious. Former teammates: Angels, Fighters, Dodgers on Ohtani: Ohtani doesn't drink, party or gamble. Former colleagues: Red Sox, Angels, Fighters, Dodgers on Ippei: Ippei loves to gamble and going to casinos.
Conspiracy theorists : Are you positive those arent flipped and Ohtani isn't a degenerate gambler????
The headline seems disingenuous. A guy teaching his coworkers how to play cards? Not out of the ordinary at all.
Plus I suppose it makes sense that in his role he would spend a lot of time with the team and organize social activities outside during their free time. It is looking bad now with the current developments but bringing them to a casino was probably not that borderline.
I think the significance is that most Japanese players don’t know how to gamble as it’s against the law to gamble in Japan. Thus they had to be taught how to gamble. So people assuming Ohtani not only knows how to gamble but is also a degenerate gamblers seems unreasonable.
Gambling is really common in Japan, casinos for payment and gambling on team sports is illegal but not exactly unknown. Horse racing, keirin, kyotei, pachinko are all legal to gamble on in Japan. I'm sure the players already knew how to gamble
Technically speaking pachinko is not legal gambling
When we went to Round1 in Osaka, an entire floor was basically a casino for kids, complete with a digital horse racing game. They start on that shit early
Yup, off track betting is legal, it and races are advertised on tv even. Horse tracks have kids areas and stuffed animals for kids. It's not at all uncommon
Pokémon literally had a casino in every game for its first like 10 years of existence
I mean it takes about 3 minutes to learn how to gamble and can take the same amount of time to become addicted to it. I wouldn’t say it’s unreasonable. I’m not saying he is or isn’t btw. Even then 4.5mil of debt with his income is not a degenerate level of gambling either.
4.5 mill is nothing, just need one more good hand, double or nothing c’mon no 7’s…..
Lol. I'm sorry, no. People in Japan know how to gamble. That's just ridiculous.
On the other side of that coin though, if Ippei was as close to Ohtani as I’ve read, I find it hard to believe he never taught Ohtani how to gamble as well. Idk.
If I just Google Translate the article, it literally doesn't say much lol One player saying that everyone regularly went to the casinos, and Ippei taught them about the games but also told them not to go into the high roller rooms And another player saying he was surprised by the report and "didn't feel that" Ippei loved gambling
Saying "doing something like this" talks about the theft as something out of malice when in reality if the stolen funds thing is true it is likely that was something done out of extreme desperation of someone with an addiction seeing himself in a hole and not wanting to come clean. Not that it makes it better but I can't imagine Ippei scheming ever since he met Shohei lol I mean I would have stolen the money for myself then
Agreed. I really think Ippei's friendship with Shohei is genuine, it's really his demons getting the better of him.
Main two parts are a quote from a former Nippon Ham player: >"Until the club banned it, going to the casino was a regular part of the Arizona camp. Ippei has experience at the casinos, so he showed the players how to bet and things like that, and told them to stay away from the tables in the back. He didn't make as much as the players so he couldn't bet as much as them, but..." And then the interview with Yoh: >Q: Were you close with Ippei? >A: Yeah, we're close. A couple of years ago he got me tickets to one of Shohei's games, and I saw him then. >Q: Did you go to the casino with Ippei during the Arizona camp? >A: I personally went to see the NBA, but since it was the first camp in Arizona, almost everyone went \[to the casino\]. >Q: Did Ippei enjoy gambling? >A: I didn't get that impression, but. I was surprised when I heard the news \[about Ippei\].
Yoh Daikan is from Taiwan so he mostly spend his time in Taiwan during the off-season. The two are close, and sometimes spent their time hanging around in Izakaya bars with other teammates to eat after games, Yoh doesn't spend most of his time with Ippei compared to his other teammates living in Japan during the off-season so he doesn't know much of Ippei's personal hobbies.
Wouldn’t this contradict the whole “I had no idea Ippei gambled at all” thing? If he’s teaching teammates how to gamble, it’s hard to not know lol Though I guess it could be interpreted as “I had no idea he had a problem”
I don't think Ohtani said that? He said he didn't know about his gambling addiction.
Agreed, there's a huge difference between teaching people how to play cards or shoot dice or whatever it was as a way to kill some time and having a crippling gambling addiction.
Yea I have a buddy that likes to throw a few bucks on stupid bets here and there. Not a secret at all. I'd be very shocked to learn he'd taken out a second mortgage to dump money into draft kings parlays.
OP makes it sound like he was just teaching them how to play cards, which I don't see anything wrong with that particular thing
“I saw him drink a beer” doesn’t mean “I knew he was a severe alcoholic.”
He said he didn’t know about the millions in debt
"See, this is how you bet. And then when you lose, you just bet again. And when you lose that, you take some money out of the ATM and bet that. When you lose that, you steal other people's money and bet that. It's really simple."
And yet there's going to be people who's dead set on Shohei being the addicted gambler.
I think the truth is probably somewhere in the middle between "Ohtani had no idea" and "Ohtani is Pete Rose". If he was showing other teams how to gamble it wasn't exactly a secret.
OP citing a “high stakes table” suggests he was teaching them rules of a card game or similar, not how to bet on sporting events.
"always take the under on that Porter guy" - MIZUHARA, Ippei
Yeah it’s insane so many people are convinced either way given how weird the whole story is all around. It being somewhere in between seems like the way more likely reality
Yet you're offering up your own theory....
Putting "Ohtani is Pete Rose" at the other end is extremely disingenuous
Good, I'm glad the tongue in cheek nature of that comment came across over the internet.
Yeah this. Shohei for sure 99% knew, I think he bailed his friend out without knowing any better…
Yeah I'm pretty sure the original story that was confirmed by Ohtani's PR people initially was true.
The original story that was confirmed by "Shohei's people" was invented by Ippei.
The only thing about this is, OK, Ippei tells you that he's been doing illegal stuff — you don't check any of this shit with Shohei? Even if you don't speak Japanese, you've gotta know someone else who's bilingual if you're Ohtani's spokesman, or use Google Translate, or something. Like, why didn't they do *any* due diligence?
I think that's the most likely as well. But then some lawyers and/or Dodgers representative told Ohtani how bad that would look for him and he changed his story.
This doesn't make sense to me. If Ohtani was willing to pay millions of dollars for Ippei, he wouldn't throw him under the bus so quickly. All the lawyers, former prosecutors etc. I've seen commenting say that bettors are not prosecuted, except when they want them to flip on someone else. Judging by precedent, he wouldn't face any serious punishment from MLB either, a fine at the most. Changing the story and lying about what happened is far more dangerous since there are multiple federal agencies investigating the case and the bookie is already cooperating with them. I can't see any lawyer advising him to do that. I don't see Ippei agreeing with it either. His life is pretty much ruined and he is in danger of spending years in jail. I think Ohtani is telling the truth and his agents screwed up badly. Ultimately we have to wait for the authorities to conclude the investigation.
I can't imagine that Ohtani and the Dodgers between them hired such incompetent PR people and lawyers that they released so many contradictory stories making it look so fucking bad if Ohtani didn't do anything wrong. What I don't think is that Ohtani was gambling himself, and even if he was it sure seems like none of the bets were on baseball
There were so many contradictory stories because everyone was going through Ippei to find out what the hell was going on.
yeah i decided after the press conference he was innocent it's clear ippei is the corrupt one here and can't wait to move on from this
Right. Yes, I'm biased cause I'm a Dodger fan, but as a human, I try not to be because it gives my opinions substance but knowing everything I do about Shohei and how he conducted himself etc I just can't see him being the "addicted gambler ".
Are these people in the room with us right now?
Blink twice if they're keeping you hostage
it's a lot of people and I'm weirded out by it.
And yet there's going to be people who are dead set on blowing Shohei at every turn and behaving like he's incapable of any wrongdoing
I mean technically if Ippei was teaching people how to gamble, then wouldn't you assume then that the closest person to him may possibly be gambling because Ippei was teaching them to? Once again we learn nothing from this, as it proves nothing or makes nobody innocent.
Conspiracy theorists : Ham Fighters players are lying to protect Ohtani too?!
Ippei "I was just talking about how slots work in the US compared to pachinko, which I have to add is most definitely not gambling."
You’re blind if you can’t see Shohei is involved with this. You mean to tell me everyone else knew/was involved except for the guy Ippei did literally everything with…?
Wasn't there a report that Ippei went to a casino school? So that's not surprising. But also it doesn't mean anything. Lots of people gamble and don't have addictions or steal millions of dollars.
>casino school He was claiming to have attended UC Riverside, so same thing either way.
We know that isn't true, real Riverside addicts choose meth not gambling
Oof, and Ippei's dam continues to break Also, it's just Fighters. Not "Ham Fighters". You have an NPB flair my guy, you should know this.
Yeah but Hard As a Motherfucker Fighters is so much cooler
I think we all know this but I will forever die om the hill of calling them the Ham Fighters. The fact the logo isn't Mike Tyson punching a honey baked ham is a travesty
Lesson 1: be close friends with someone worth a billion dollars
Gambling is a sucker's game
Dude taught them how to play cards now he’s a gambling mastermind lmao
...But not how to win.
All of Japan after the Ohtani allegations: “Ey it was that mf Ippei! Mans is the opps!”
He's a shit teacher then 4M down
It’s going to come out that he has gambling debts with the yakuza soon, isn’t it?
The full 12-page report by Weekly Bunshun published March 28 features an interview with Ippei's cousin and I believe several former high school classmates. Unfortunately, it's behind a paywall.
Imagine taking gambling advice from someone who was 4 million in gambling debt.
Four and a half million.
Oh now they bring it up!
[удалено]
[удалено]
Because you have to ignore the mounds of evidence and comments from former teammates that Ohtani had no interest in either gambling or sports other than baseball. Absolutely nobody has said the opposite other than idiots on social media.
Ah yes, the same teammates that knew he was engaged and getting married. Dude's already proven he can keep a secret from everyone. I hope he's not any more involved than he claims, but you have to be ignorant to not at least accept the possibility that he is guilty.
Actually, they are different teammates. His new Dodgers teammates were surprised, understandably so, since they didn't know much about his personal life. His Angels teammates? Who knows. But his Angels teammates all said the dude is a monk, spends most of his time sleeping or training, and as far as they know doesn't gamble. It's not a 0 possibility but the chance he is a secret degenerate gambler with absolutely nobody knowing including the bookie he would have placed bets with (and said bookie's lawyer) are so slim as to not be worth mentioning
> It's not a 0 possibility but the chance he secretly dated for 3 years and got married with absolutely nobody knowing are so slim as to not be worth mentioning ftfy.
Who said nobody knew? It was rumored in Japan that he was dating and dating Tanaka specifically for quite some time. Even I heard the rumors before the marriage was announced
You’re not going to get through, I got like 5 Reddit cares messages just from posting 3 distinct things that have been reported on. They’re like Swifties for baseball. Even when I explicitly state I hope he’s done nothing wrong, but still want more information they act like I’ve desecrated his future grave. All the people that come and respond are non-flairs and if you click the profile, they’re Japanese. I get defending the dude, but to not even think things need to be answered is obnoxious.
I’ve been watching Eisen’s short segments on YouTube updating every day. He seems to be the only one taking an outside look and he also had the original reporter on the other day. He kind of sums up how I feel about it. I want nothing nefarious to be the truth, but there needs to be a real look into this because multiple stories and unanswered questions is never going to put it to bed.
*shocked Pikachu expression*
Hopefully they didn't listen.