Multiple Betting Scandals in 2025 Leave Regulators

The year began with early tremors and ended with full-blown upheaval in the U.S. sports betting industry, marking 2025 as one of the most turbulent years since the Supreme Court struck down PASPA in 2018. A string of criminal cases, regulatory failures, and integrity breaches left leagues, casinos, and lawmakers grappling with the central question facing the modern sports-wagering era: has legalization improved transparency, or simply shifted old problems into new venues?

A Year That Opened in Crisis

Signs of instability emerged just 12 days into 2025. On 12 January, federal agents intercepted Shane Hennen at Las Vegas’s Harry Reid International Airport as he attempted to board a one-way flight to Colombia. Prosecutors said Hennen, facing a plea deadline in the Eastern District of New York, was trying to flee the country.

Within weeks, reports surfaced that federal investigators were probing Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier over a pattern of suspicious wagers placed nearly two years earlier. By autumn, the two threads collided. Rozier, Hennen, and almost three dozen others were swept up in what interim U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. called the largest takedown of a gambling enterprise since PASPA’s repeal.

The sprawling probe reignited an ongoing debate: Is the regulated U.S. sports betting market successfully detecting misconduct—or exposing vulnerabilities that the black market once concealed? Perhaps no case captured public attention more than the sentencing of Ippei Mizuhara, former interpreter for MLB superstar Shohei Ohtani. Just days before the Super Bowl, Mizuhara received a 57-month prison sentence after admitting to embezzling nearly $17 million from Ohtani to pay off debts owed to illegal bookmaker Matt Bowyer.

Bowyer, whose operation accepted roughly 19,000 wagers from Mizuhara totaling a $325 million handle, faced his own reckoning months later. A downward sentencing departure led to a term of one year and a day—far lighter than many expected—though the court acknowledged that Mizuhara still owed Bowyer approximately $24 million, funds unlikely ever to be recovered.

The scandal extended into Nevada’s casino industry, where regulators scrutinized Strip properties for weak anti-money laundering (AML) controls that allowed Bowyer and associates to move illicit funds with ease. Court filings showed Bowyer and fellow bookmaker Damien Leforbes each lost around $10 million at a property identified as “Casino A,” widely believed to be Resorts World Las Vegas.

Record Fines and Calls for Reform

Across the spring and early summer, the Nevada Gaming Commission levied some of its largest penalties in history. MGM Grand, Wynn Las Vegas, and Resorts World Las Vegas accumulated fines ranging from $5.5 million to $10.5 million for AML failures tied to Bowyer’s activity.

At Resorts World, regulators uncovered instances where executives redacted Bowyer’s occupation to mask his work as an illegal bookmaker—effectively enabling him to wager vast sums without proper source-of-funds verification. Some industry observers argued the casino should have faced harsher consequences. “I would want to inflict maximum pain,” said former regulator Richard Schuetz.

In October, Caesars Entertainment became the fourth operator fined, paying $7.8 million for similar AML lapses.

Calling the scandals a “clarion call,” former Nevada lieutenant governor and gaming commissioner Brian Krolicki urged comprehensive reforms across the Strip. The year’s most sensational integrity cases arrived in October, when federal prosecutors announced indictments involving multiple NBA and MLB figures.

Of the three NBA personnel arrested, Terry Rozier was the only active player. But the most high-profile name was Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups, charged with participating in a mob-backed rigged poker game. Prosecutors also allege that an unindicted co-conspirator—matching Billups’s description—leaked insider information suggesting the Blazers intended to tank a game.

Several defendants are also reportedly connected to an ongoing college basketball point-shaving investigation.

At nearly the same time, two Cleveland Guardians pitchers—Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz—were charged with deliberately manipulating pitches to influence outcomes of microbets, a rapidly growing segment of the wagering market. MLB responded within 48 hours, announcing that national sportsbooks had agreed to cap microbet limits at $200. At least six current or former professional athletes appeared in a Brooklyn federal courthouse in the weeks following the indictments.

2025 proved that legal sports betting can expose corruption—but also that our current safeguards aren’t strong enough to contain it.

A Debate With No Easy Resolution

The tumult of 2025 hardened opposing views on whether U.S. sports betting regulation is functioning as intended. Chris Christie, who championed legal betting for New Jersey, argued that the scandals prove the legal market is surfacing misconduct that once festered in the shadows. But Rep. Paul Tonko (D-NY), a leading critic of the state-by-state regulatory model, said the past year demonstrates the opposite. In a letter to the NBA, Tonko wrote that “voluntary self-policing” has failed and that a federal framework is needed to protect both sports integrity and public health.

As 2026 begins, the policy debate shows no signs of abating. What remains clear is that the integrity of major U.S. sports—and the credibility of the legal wagering industry—now rest on decisions regulators and lawmakers have yet to make.