I don’t think it is, but if this is all a PR stunt to get someone like me, who doesn’t care about sports, to take an interest in baseball… well played.
For those not familiar, Ohtani is probably the best baseball player alive right now (certainly the highest paid). He came to the US after playing baseball in Japan and has an interpreter who is also a good friend. The interpreter struggles with a gambling addiction and Ohtani allegedly paid off his friend’s gambling debts… or was the money stolen? Nobody knows yet, since people keep changing their story.
This is a problem because you can’t work for a sports league and also bet on games.
It’s possible, but to me it really sounds like he was helping out his friend, then they realized that might implicate Ohtani as an accessory and tried to cover it up to save his career