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Former illegal bookmaker Mathew Bowyer reflects on Nevada’s Black Book and sports betting’s future

September 30, 2026

On a pleasant, 75-degree day at a golf course in Dana Point, California, with the Pacific Ocean in view, ESPN investigative reporter Tisha Thompson learned from two former illegal bookmakers how to talk potential clients into wagering on sports. Mathew Bowyer and Owen Hanson are felons who have recently been released from prison in separate cases that include, for each of them, operating illegal sportsbooks. Thompson is the ESPN reporter who earlier broke the story that Ippei Mizuhara, Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani’s Japanese-language interpreter, placed millions of dollars in illegal sports bets, using Bowyer as his bookie. In California, where ...

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The Mob, Hulu’s upcoming reality show, stars actor Parker Posey as the host of a competition in which celebrities go head-to-head in Mafia-themed challenges. Hulu

Celebrities to compete for cash, get ‘whacked’ in Mob-inspired reality show

A Mob-themed competition show is set to air soon on Hulu and Disney+, featuring celebrity contestants at a luxury Italian…

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Mob fashion at its finest: The top 5 best-dressed mobsters

Adjectives that come to mind when people think of the most infamous organized crime figures may include ruthless, intimidating, or…

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The late Robert Blakey spoke at The Mob Museum in November 2013 during a public program, “JFK: An Inside Look at the Assassination of a President 50 Years Later.” The Mob Museum Collection

Robert Blakey, architect of the RICO Act that crippled the Mob, dies at age 90

No one made life more difficult for the Mob than Robert Blakey. In 1969, Blakey, a Notre Dame Law School…

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Leslie “Ike” Atkinson, right, is escorted from court following his sentencing on June 5, 1976. Courtesy of Cipollini Collection

Myth busted: Vietnam War-era drug traffickers did not smuggle heroin in soldiers’ coffins

Fifty years after U.S. officials brought down Leslie “Ike” Atkinson, the claim that heroin was smuggled into the United States…

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Geraldo Rivera poses on the stairs heading down to the Lexington Hotel’s basement, where Al Capone supposedly kept a hidden vault. Forty years ago, millions of Americans tuned in to watch Rivera’s two-hour live television special revealing the contents of the “vault.” Steve Kagan / Getty Images

Geraldo Rivera uncovered ‘The Mystery of Al Capone’s Vaults’ on live television 40 years ago

On April 21, 1986, television reporter Geraldo Rivera completed his final on-air shot in a live broadcast from the Chicago…

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Leonardo “Leo the Lawyer” Rizzuto, the current boss of the Montreal Mafia, leaves court in 2008. Courtesy of Scott Burnstein

Embattled Montreal Mafia clings to underworld power amid setbacks

After nearly two decades of intermittent unrest in the Montreal Mafia, the Rizzuto dynasty is once again on the ropes….

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The hippo Vanessa, a descendant of Escobar’s original four, is the mascot of the zoo at Hacienda Nápoles. While the hippos at the theme park are safe, the Colombian government has marked the pods living in the Magdalena River Basin for culling. CC BY-SA 4.0 / Alvaro Morales Ríos[

Colombia approves plan to euthanize ‘cocaine hippos’ introduced by Pablo Escobar

More than 30 years after his death, Colombia is still struggling with the consequences of Pablo Escobar’s reign. This week,…

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