What an awkward position for MLB to be in. Ohtani is a two-time American League MVP, a three-time All-Star, and an international megastar. In recent years, even the best pro baseball players have struggled to gain the mass popularity of other American sports superstars, such as the NFL’s Patrick Mahomes and the NBA’s LeBron James. Ohtani is both a dynamic hitter and a powerful pitcher, and with him on the roster, the Dodgers are a heavy favorite to win the World Series.

The last thing baseball wants or needs is for its most marketable star to be embroiled in a gambling scandal. Baseball has a messy history with gambling, from the 1919 Black Sox scandal—which many consider to be the most notorious game-fixing incident in sports history—to the lifetime banishment of the Cincinnati Reds legend Pete Rose. Rose was banned from baseball in 1989, after an MLB investigation uncovered that he’d placed bets on the Reds to win while he was playing for and managing the team.

Rose’s punishment, and the opprobrium he faced, once served as a deterrent for athletes tempted to wager on sports, but now even the stigma around gambling seems to have disappeared.