David Purdum, ESPN
That’s a wrap — 2022 is in the books, which, coincidentally, is where a lot of the betting public’s money now resides.
Bettors were down more than $6 billion through November, and that’s just in the 30-some states with legal bookmakers. Don’t forget that people are still betting — and losing — in states that haven’t legalized wagering yet, including California and Texas. Add it all up, and it feels safe to say American bettors left more than $10 billion of their funds with their friendly bookmakers in 2022. Better luck next year!
There were some winners, of course, big ones, in fact. None bigger than a venerable furniture salesman from Houston known as Mattress Mack, who practically single-handedly sent Louisiana’s sportsbook industry to a losing month in November.
Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale, owner of Gallery Furniture in Houston, won approximately $75 million off $10 million in bets on the Astros to win the World Series. It’s believed to be the largest payout in American sports betting history, with the bulk of the haul coming from Louisiana sportsbooks.
McIngvale regularly uses the betting market to mitigate risk from furniture giveaways at his store. In June, he launched a promotion that offered any customer who spends $3,000 or more at his store double their money back if the Astros won the World Series. By July, he cut the offer to a straight-up refund instead of double but continued the promotion into the American League Championship Series.
“We figured we had enough betting insurance to go through Game 1 or 2 of the World Series,” McIngvale told ESPN in a recent phone interview. “But on the Sunday after they beat the Yankees and clinched, we had the biggest day [in sales] ever, by about 20%, so we had to cut the promotion off then.
“We’ve been fast and furious giving people this money back the last couple months. Thank God, I had enough guts or stupidity to get those bets at 10-1 way back in June.”
McIngvale said one customer received a $25,000 refund and said she was going to use it to pay some of her child’s college tuition. Customers have to come in to Gallery Furniture to fill out tax forms and either receive a check or have the money put on their credit cards.
“It’s a big undertaking for us, especially as many people were in this promotion,” McIngvale said. “But it certainly made a lot of people happy.”
McIngvale didn’t waste any time getting back in the gambling game. He has more than $1 million riding on the Houston Cougars to win the NCAA men’s basketball tournament at around 10-1 odds. In the meantime, he’s planning his next promotion, eyeing a big bet on the Super Bowl — he likes the Vikings, Cowboys and Bengals — and setting his goals for 2023. His New Year’s resolution is to, “Gamble more and gamble smarter,” he said with a laugh.
Rest is here…
