Cleveland.com’s Paul Hoynes revealed some startling news about the alleged gambling scandal involving Guardians’ pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz in a recent episode of the Cleveland Baseball Talk Podcast.
Hoynes confirmed reports that the investigation has gone beyond Major League Baseball and into Ohio’s state government—specifically, the Ohio Casino Control Commission.
“I contacted the FBI in Cleveland and New York. They had a no comment,” Hoynes said during the podcast. “But then I sent an email to the Ohio Casino Control Commission and they got back to me and said, ‘Yes, we’ve started our own investigation, independent of MLB, but also working collaboratively with Major League Baseball into Clase and Ortiz and the gambling allegations against them.”
According to their website, the Ohio Casino Control Commission “is a bipartisan regulatory body made up of seven Commissioners, an Executive Director and supporting staff that provides oversight of the Ohio’s gaming industry."
Clase was placed on administrative leave on July 28 as part of MLB's investigation into sports betting. Ortiz was placed on the restricted list earlier that month, on July 3, for similar reasons.
The involvement of state regulators adds to the severity of the investigation, which could now potentially result in legal consequences as well as MLB’s own disciplinary measures.
“I’m not sure how [the Ohio Casino Control Commission] were tipped off on this,” Hoynes said. “Their investigators found irregularities in the betting habits because the bets that MLB was investigating came from Ohio, New Jersey and New York regarding Ortiz especially and Clase.
Hoynes also notes that the investigation is likely connected to Ohio Governor Mike DeWine’s recent campaign to eliminate prop bets on professional sports in the state. He’s already rid college sports of prop betting due to threats against athletes from bettors, and he may use this high-profile case to help his argument for professional sports.
The investigations into Clase and Ortiz’s gambling violations are currently ongoing and nothing has yet been proven. But the scandal has taken a new dimension with the involvement of state regulators, who could impose criminal charges if the pair of Guardians’ pitchers gambling allegations are proven to be true.