This article raises the question of suspending Shohei Ohtani over his alleged payments to an illegal bookmaker to help his interpreter. Note that the interpreter said, Ohtani paid the debt, but Ohtani’s people said the pitcher was robbed of the money.

Ohtani, however, might have broken the law if he paid Mizuhara’s gambling debt, according to I. Nelson Rose, a gambling law scholar and professor emeritus at Whittier College.

“If he paid the debt knowing it was for illegal gambling, there is the potential for fairly serious federal penalties,” Rose said. “There is a federal statute that says, in effect, that if you help an illegal gambling operator collect debts, you are in the business of gambling. Even if he was only doing this to help a friend, he certainly knew he was helping the bookmaker collect the debt.”

LATimes.com

Why could that lead to a ban? Here’s section three of the gambling rule (emphasis added):

(3) Any player, umpire, or Club or League official or employee who places bets with illegal book makers, or agents for illegal book makers, shall be subject to such penalty as the Commissioner deems appropriate in light of the facts and circumstances of the conduct. Any player, umpire, or Club or League official or employee who operates or works for an illegal bookmaking business shall be subject to a minimum of a one-year suspension by the Commissioner. For purposes of this provision, an illegal bookmaker is an individual who accepts, places or handles wagers on sporting events from members of the public as part of a gaming operation that is unlawful in the jurisdiction in which the bets are accepted.

So was Ohtani robbed, or did he help a friend?