As millions of Americans raced to fill out brackets and place wagers on teenage basketball players Thursday, another scandal amplified calls for the country’s booming sports-betting industry to be restrained — and reformed.
The Los Angeles Dodgers fired Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter Wednesday night, after the translator told ESPN that Ohtani paid off the interpreter’s offshore gambling debts and as Ohtani’s lawyer told another story, accusing the translator of stealing roughly $4.5 million.
While fans sorted through the ramifications and Ohtani played on in the Dodgers’ season-opening series in Seoul, experts and amateurs alike joined office pools and placed wagers on the first day of March Madness, the country’s closest thing to an official sports betting holiday.
