Federal Prosecutors from the United States released a detailed complaint providing bombshell details about the allegation that Ippei Mizuhara, the translator of baseball star Shohei Ohtani, stole $16 million to fund a “gambling addiction”.

The United States Supreme Court in 2018 ruled that states had the authority to legalize sports gambling. This has led to a surge in bets being placed on professional sports.

The onus is on those facilitating the bets to run KYC checks to prevent facilitation of illegal bets. An automated AI-based KYC system such as I-Percept’s Kappawise Vet would have been able to flag, for example, based on Mizuhara’s name and job, that he was a high-risk client and routed it to appropriate decisionmakers for enhanced due diligence and verification.

As legislative bodies consider requiring additional KYC checks for prospective clients looking to bet on sports, companies can be ahead of the curve and protect their reputation by leveraging automated KYC solutions. Find out more about I-Percept’s Kappawise Vet and how its KYC algorithms can help mitigate risks across a range of industries.