Was it an act of contrition, or just an act?

At times it was hard to tell as illegal bookie Mathew Bowyer stood before the court and the cameras on the day of his sentencing for running a multimillion-dollar gambling operation, laundering some of the proceeds and filing a false tax return.

Maybe it was a little of both.

Bowyer was sentenced to a year and a day on Aug. 29 in a case that made headlines worldwide after it was revealed he had taken thousands of bets from the Japanese interpreter for Los Angeles Dodgers slugger Shohei Ohtani. Bowyer cooperated generously with IRS and Department of Homeland Security agents and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Central District of California. The 50-year-old father of five also went on a media charm offensive meant to show he had seen the light of his illegal life of luxury that included high-rolling holidays from Las Vegas to Monte Carlo.

Eyewitnesses at the Ronald Reagan federal courthouse in Santa Ana, California, reported Bowyer appeared emotional and expressed remorse standing before U.S. District Judge John W. Holcomb and during his comments to reporters.

“I stand before you a changed man,” Bowyer told the judge, who perhaps has heard that line before.

As his estimable defense attorney Diane Bass acknowledged, he’ll spend a few months “at a low-security facility lifting weights and playing soccer.” She appeared charmed by her client and told the judge he was one of the “warmest, most gracious” people she’d ever met and “not your average defendant.”

Holcomb also appeared impressed. He granted the eight-level downward departure recommended by prosecutors. Bowyer had faced as much as 51 months, and even the department of parole and probation recommended 36 months.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristen Williams, meanwhile, offered the court salient observations. In part, she noted that Bowyer preyed not only on the gambling compulsions of now-imprisoned interpreter Ippei Mizuhara, but many other clients as well. Mizuhara, who pleaded guilty to bank fraud in June 2024 and is serving a 57-month sentence, placed more than 19,000 bets with Bowyer, losing more than $40 million — about $17 million siphoned from an Ohtani account. “There was an IRS harm, a societal harm, and a harm to some of the clients of Mr. Bowyer’s business,” Williams said.

Good points, but who are we kidding? Bowyer’s level of cooperation and official contrition made the morning’s events pretty predictable. And let’s just say his timeout for penance was brief.

On the day he learned his fate, Bowyer’s smiling face appeared in interviews on CNN and ESPN. Lest anyone be confused by his celebration of a high-rolling lifestyle while pleading for forgiveness, he wore a T-shirt reading “Spiritual Gangster” during his CNN interview.

In it, he appeared gleeful discussing his 35-year gambling career and the big bets he’d won and lost. He said he was sorry for Mizuhara’s trouble, but not for the money the interpreter blew and stole from his friend to pay his debts.

“The greedy side of me was, this is awesome,” Bowyer said. “I don’t have to worry about getting paid. This is a great client. Unlimited funds. The negative side is, this could draw eyes on me.”

The negative side was not that the spiraling arrangement could erupt in scandal and send him to prison far from his wife and children. No. He was worried about it exposing his operation, which included 700 clients and betting agents in multiple cities, including Strip casinos.

But that was before he saw the light.

Meanwhile, one of Bowyer’s exposed associates is convicted illegal bookie Damien Leforbes, who has declined to cooperate with investigators. Bowyer has agreed to pay the government restitution, but gets to skate on the reported $1.8 million he owes Leforbes.

But pay-and-take cuts both ways in the illegal bookmaking fraternity. Sources say one Bowyer client, the son of a billionaire, continues to duck out of a multimillion-dollar gambling debt.

Since joining the government’s team, in addition to major interviews Bowyer has appeared on multiple podcasts and has spoken about his career at the USC Marshall School of Business. He’s also self-published Recalibrate, a book detailing his high-rolling life at the tables and among big bettors.

As part of his sentence, Bowyer’s not supposed to gamble. Which means he will be forced to gamble illegally should he fail to resist the urge. In his CNN interview, it didn’t sound like he was ready to quit. “I love gambling,” he told Nick Watt.

Before sentencing, his voice trembled as he told the judge, “The bottom line is, I am remorseful. I have made many poor choices in my life.”

Cooperating with investigators wasn’t one of them. A year-and-a-day is child’s play compared to the time he faced. If he can keep from booking federal correctional center basketball games, he’ll be on home confinement by next Easter.

As the American sports-scandal circus moves on in a nation obsessed with wagering on ballgames, maybe Mathew Bowyer really is a changed man. Perhaps he has seen his last chip stack in the high-roller pit, enjoyed his last comp and has assembled his last list of monied clients for a lucrative bookmaking hustle. Maybe.

But the bottom line is that’s not the way I’m betting.

John L. Smith is an author and longtime columnist. He was born in Henderson and his family’s Nevada roots go back to 1881. His stories have appeared in New Lines, Time, Reader’s Digest, Rolling Stone, The Daily Beast, Reuters and Desert Companion, among others.