A former minor league baseball player from Orange County and several other people were named in a series of cases tied to an illegal sports gambling ring, which started 20 years ago and came to involve current and former professional athletes, federal authorities announced Thursday, March 31.

Documents unsealed this week show several of the main players in the scheme are pleading guilty to operating an illegal gambling website based in Costa Rica, with some failing to report profits from the site on their tax forms.

Wayne Nix, 45, of Newport Coast, who was a former pitcher in the Oakland A’s organization, began the bookmaking business about 20 years ago and developed the business using his contacts in professional sports, according to court documents.

Edon Kagasoff, 44, of Lake Forest, joined the business in 2014 and helped facilitate it through Sand Island Sports, a website that allowed bettors to create accounts and place bets, court documents said. Howard Miller, 63, of Gardena also helped by assisting in the collection and payout of gambling proceeds to the website, said Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Nix also hired three former Major League Baseball players to help with the business, but they were not named in court documents. Nix pleaded guilty earlier this month, admitting the business was illegal because it involved at least five people, operated for at least six years and had a gross revenue well over $2,000 per day.

Agents, working for Nix, would solicit customers and help set up accounts through the website in order to accept bets. Nix would then assign a betting limit to each customer, according to prosecutors. The agents would then issue payouts or collect debts.

Nix’s plea agreement detailed bets made through the website, including payments received from a professional football player, an MLB coach and a baseball analyst for losses. A sports broadcaster who had placed bets with Nix told him that he was going to refinance his home to pay off the debts, the agreement says.

Another bettor made a $5 million wager on the outcome of the 2019 Super Bowl, the agreement said, but the outcome of that bet was not disclosed.

None of the bettors or agents were named in court documents.

Nix also admitted to receiving nearly $1.5 million in income from the business that he did not report on his tax forms in 2017 and 2018, Mrozek said. He agreed to pay all back taxes due for those years. Nix was expected to enter his guilty plea on April 11, Mrozek said.

Earlier this year, two other defendants, Kenneth Arsenian, 52, of Newport Coast and Joseph Castelao, 56, of Rancho Palos Verdes, also pleaded guilty to charges related to the illegal business. Castelao was named as the owner of Sand Island Sports.

Arsenian, who also filed false tax returns, admitted he failed to report more than $2.8 million in income from 2015 to 2018 and agreed to pay $1.1 million in back taxes, plus penalties and interest, Mrozek said.

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