The Ohtani gambling scandal, in a nutshell

The Shohei Ohtani gambling story seems complicated. There's a lot there. It's hard to follow. There are different versions and explanations and excuses. It's tempting to just ignore it until Major League Baseball decides what to do with what could potentially rank with the likes of Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe Jackson.

Here's the situation, in a nutshell. Why would the illegal bookmaker at the heart of the case, Matthew Bowyer, extend seven figures of credit to someone making less than six figures as an interpreter?

Bowyer was either too stupid to protect his interests or smart enough to know Ohtani was backing the bets made by Ippei Mizuhara.

That's the light bulb that flashed and buzzed for me after reading Saturday's item in the Washington Post that focused on Bowyer’s background and path to becoming a bookie.

Attorney Diane Bass, who represents Bowyer, has tried to downplay any suggestion that Ohtani was placing the bets.

“He never spoke with him, never met with him, never texted with him,” Bass said, regarding Ohtani. “The only person he ever met with, spoke with, or texted with was Ippei.”

She also said Bowyer has no athlete clients, that she is "aware of." (In other words, he might.) Bass likewise said that it was Mizuhara's proximity to Ohtani that prompted Bowyer to keep extending credit to the interpreter. She said it was because Ohtani was Mizuhara's "best friend," not his backer.

Of course, once it came to light that money straight from Ohtani's bank account was used to pay Bowyer, the situation was characterized as theft from Ohtani.

So, basically, the situation is one of these three things:

1. Ohtani, in lieu of telling Mizuhara he's not very good at betting and should stop doing it, told him that their friendship was strong enough to translate to an unlimited pool of gambling credit.

2. Ohtani allowed Mizuhara to get close enough to commandeer Ohtani's bank accounts and stole the money.

3. Ohtani was the one making the bets, and Mizuhara was the conduit.

From the bookie's perspective, only No. 2 and No. 3 make sense. No. 1 is the one thing a bookie shouldn't trust, if the bookie is any good at making book. And that's the very excuse the bookie's lawyer is floating.

So either Bowyer isn't a very good bookie, or Mizuhara and/or Ohtani aren't very good liars.

Whatever happens, the NFL should be paying close attention. Because it's just a matter of time before the NFL is dealing with a similar scandal.