He's never afraid to make a statement or take a risk and, clearly, he has fun doing it.'īy the end of the 2017 MLB season, McIngvale was such a Houston institution the Astros brought him along as one of their own for the trip to the White House. 'That's why I bring in Bill Veeck as the only comparison with Mack. 'We take large wagers from sports bettors of all stripes, but I'm not sure anyone does it with as much panache as Mack,' says Ken Fuchs, head of sports at Caesars Entertainment. He ended up having to refund more than $10 million worth of mattresses. In a rather ingenious move at the dawn of the legal sports gambling era, McIngvale hedged his potential business losses by placing seven-figure bets on the Astros.

After the storm, as the Astros continued their historic run to the 2017 World Series, McIngvale was in the news yet again, this time for an only-in-Texas furniture promotion through which anyone who bought a mattress from Gallery Furniture would get it for free if the Astros won it all. 'Damon Runyon said 'All horse players die broke.' And I know I shouldn't bet with my heart, but it's hard not to and it's a lot more fun.' In 2017, McIngvale gained national attention for opening his doors and sheltering hundreds of victims of Hurricane Harvey for weeks inside his furniture showroom, something he also did after Hurricane Katrina years prior. 'I just have what you might call a high tolerance for risk,' McIngvale says. Lanky and seemingly equal parts ears, teeth, cowboy boots and charisma, McIngvale has been a household name in Houston for decades thanks to his wacky TV commercials and his Ross Perot delivery. On a recent Tuesday afternoon in Houston, with the MLB playoffs about to begin, the faded blue nylon bag - its contents worth potentially millions - sits on the floor of the massive Gallery Furniture showroom, just within arm's reach of its owner: the Houston furniture magnate and Astros superfan Jim McIngvale, better known around these parts and in the world of high-stakes sports gambling as Mattress Mack. INSTEAD OF A bank vault or a Brink's truck, the betting slips from what could be the largest payout in sports gambling history are being guarded by nothing more than an old, tattered Houston Astros backpack.

The Game of VORs by Andrew Orange