When the rest of the world first heard about Mattress Mack, it was from national network coverage when he opened Gallery Furniture, his massive furniture stores in Houston, to anyone affected by hurricane Harvey.
The images of people sleeping in furniture displays, on couches and chairs, are indelible.
If you live in the Houston area, you know Mattress Mack as an omnipresent television presence, generous charity giver, and relentless marketing promoter selling furniture at his three Gallery Furniture locations since the 1980s.
In 2022, Jim “Mattress Mack” Mclngvale won the largest sports bet payout in history – $75 million dollars – when the Houston Astros defeated the Philadelphia Philles in the World Series. Being a consummate promoter, Mack collected part of his bet in cash, in a wheelbarrow.
The bets he placed on that World Series were part of an ongoing “hedge bet” promotion where Gallery Furniture paid back anyone who purchased $3,000 in furniture if the Astros won.
The genius of this promotion is while Mclngvale offers Houston a chance to bet on a sports team, if the team loses, Mclingvale keeps the revenue from furniture sales. At the same time, Mclingvale will place a hedge bet for the team to win. If the team wins, he collects the bets and uses the winnings to pay off the happy customers. If the team loses, Mack keeps the expanded revenue from the promotion.
In this way, Jim “Mattress Mack” has taken his love of gambling and turned it into part of a business model. His gambling promotions enabled him to join the upper echelon of famous gamblers whose names are recognized by the general public like Wild Bill Hickock, Nick “The Greek” Dandolos, Amarillo Slim, Titanic Thompson and Doyle Brunson.
“Never give up”
Mattress Mack continues to place large sports bets that are now chronicled by the press. Over the years, it has not been easy. The reason behind everything he accomplishes is to sell furniture. The standout trait that keeps Mattress Mack going is, like an Energizer Bunny with a Texas drawl, he never quits.
“Never give up. You know in a gambler’s life they’re going to knock you down more than you’re going to win; so, you just got to get up, dust yourself off, and get back in the fight. To me, that motto is like when Henry Aaron said, ‘No matter what I was going through, no matter if I was sick, no matter if I had a family problem, no matter what, the one thing I always did was keep swinging.’ So, I’m still swinging,” Mack said.
Born in Mississippi, Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale attended high school in Dallas, and he was a student at the University of Texas and the University of North Texas, where he played football for both schools. After college, Mack worked at a convenience store where his boss did him a huge favor one day: firing young Mack.
After opening business and failing, Mack went into a deep depression that led him to a life-changing experience.
“Get up, go to work and make something of your life”
“I was broke. I was unemployed. I was feeling sorry for myself, like millions of Americans still do. I felt like I was entitled to a nice home, nice car, nice job, without having to work for it. I woke up early one Sunday morning and turned the television on, and lo and behold, there was television evangelist, Oral Roberts. I wasn’t looking for any religion on the television, I was looking for a message.
“He looked at me through that television and said, ‘You know, there’s a lot of you out there in television land today that are throwing your lives away. You’re wallowing in the throes of self-pity. You feel sorry for yourself. You feel like the world owes you favor. Let me tell you something. The world doesn’t owe you a favor. You owe the world a favor.’ He said,’ Get up, go to work and make something out of your life.’ And that was a seminal event in my life, and I remember that day like yesterday. So, for the rest of my life, I’ve lived by that motto. Get up, go to work, and make something out of your life,” Mack recalled.
Marry me first
Refreshed and determined to make a name for himself, Mack found a job at a furniture store on the other side of town where he absorbed the business practices and trades of the furniture industry. Inspired, Mack made a decision that would forever change his life: to open up his own furniture store. Mack asked his then-girlfriend Linda to join him in Houston, and she said she would move under one condition: if they became husband and wife.
“I said, ‘Linda, I’ve got great news for you, we’re going to move to Houston. We’re going to get into the furniture business.’ She said, ‘No way.’ So, I kept asking and asking her. She said, ‘Mack, I’ll move to Houston. I’ll get into the furniture business with you, but you’re going to have to marry me first.’ And I thought to myself, this woman has put me on a difficult decision. Then I came up with what I consider to be an entrepreneurial brainstorm. I thought to myself, where else can I get an employee this cheap?’ I said, ‘You got a deal.’ And we moved to Houston.
“Linda is the business brains of the operation. I’m just a marketing guy, so it’s been a good combination, and we’ve been at it for 44 years. It seems like we started yesterday, and we’re still hard at it till the day we both die,” Mack said.
“Don’t let the hard day win”
In the early days, Mack and Linda lived at the furniture store because they could not afford to have furniture stolen. They also invented same-day furniture delivery for a similar reason.
“We invented same-day delivering for the furniture business. We had three employees: me, Linda, and another guy. I would sell the furniture. They loaded it on the truck, and we’d follow customers home because we couldn’t afford for them to cancel the order. We’d be out of business. The rest is history. Necessity being the mother of invention,” Mack said.
“Then we would sell out of all the furniture on Saturday night. I would drive a U-Haul truck we rented to Dallas and meet my friend at his furniture store at two in the morning and buy about $10,000 worth of furniture wholesale. I would load it up, bring it back down into Houston and sell it on Sunday. But you know, you do what you have to do, and you don’t pay the price. You enjoy the price,” Mack related.
“Gallery Furniture saves you money”
In the early 1980s, Mack was having a hard time making payroll and then he discovered his lifelong love for advertising and his trademark catch phrase.
“I was doing some television ads that gave me three hours for $10,000 worth of production time. It was our last $10,000. I was doing the ads, and I kept stuttering and stammering, couldn’t come up with a punch line in the end. Finally, the guy said, ‘This is your last take.’
“If you did not do this one right, I won’t have anything to show for the three hours. I did my old 25 second furniture pitch, and out of sheer frustration, I had the day’s receipts in my back pocket, and I pulled the money. I said, ‘Gallery Furniture saves you money!’ That was the first TV ad, and it’s stuck, and it works like a miracle,” Mack declared.
Mattress Mack is born
Mack told me he was looking for a shtick, something to grab people’s attention. In casino parlance, he was searching for a brand.
“I was reading a book about some guy in West Texas who had a tire store, and the tire store was going broke because nobody knew who he was or what he did. So, he started wearing a tire everywhere he went and became known as tire man, and he sold a ton of tires. I figured if he could wear tires, I could wear a mattress. I started wearing a mattress. I named myself “Mattress Mack,” and since then, I probably sold more mattresses than anybody in human history,” Mack recounted.
“Singular business of delighting customers”
In a documentary, an employee described Mack as ‘Part capitalist, part social worker.’ Working at Gallery Furniture you get free breakfast, lunch and dinner. There is a free gym, free preschool and pre-K school and a free trade school.
Mack can be seen at the front desk of his main Gallery Furniture store seven days a week greeting and talking to customers. He offers his cell phone number to all his customers and places it on social media for the public to see. Mack tells his customer service reps never to screen his calls.
“If I talk to the customers, I know what’s on their mind. I know if our service was good, mediocre or horrible. How else are you going to learn all these things unless you get down there in the nitty gritty and talk to the customers?
“I tell them all my cell number is 281-844-1963. I want to learn what’s going on, and I want to be able to render the best service in the world to our customers. Because we’re not in the furniture business, we’re in the singular business of delighting customers,” Mack said.
Disaster relief
Mack is known for deep seeding into the Houston Community through an unrelenting list of charity events. None gathers more attention than when he opens up his stores for disaster relief, which he has done several times.
Most notable are Hurricane Harvey in 2017, when they sheltered hundreds of people displaced by severe flooding. He also sent his furniture trucks into high water to rescue people. In 2019, he sheltered people from Tropical Storm Imelda. During Winter Storm Uri in 2021, he provided warmth and shelter to people struggling in freezing temperatures facing widespread power outages. In both Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and Hurricane Ida in 2021, he extended help to Louisiana residents allowing evacuees to stay in his stores.
“Somebody said, ‘Weren’t you worried about the liability?’ I didn’t give a damn about the liability. My people were drowning, and we’re going to take care of our people. We’re here to take care of the community, first, last and always. And damn the torpedoes, we’re going full speed ahead,” Mack declared.
Ever the promoter, Mack declared a simple solution to stores disturbed by hundreds of people spending days sleeping on his furniture.
‘All these people were freaking out saying, ’What are you going to do with all the furniture when they get through sleeping on them?’ And I said, ‘What the hell do you think I’m going to do. I’m going to have a furniture sale.’ And we did. It’s really not brain surgery,” Mack mused.
Sports gambling promotions
I asked Mack to explain how sports betting “hedge” promotions work towards his goal of delighting customers and selling furniture. Mack has expanded his sports betting promotions over the years to include Super Bowl promotions, Houston Astros promotions, college basketball with March Madness, college football national championships, and the Kentucky Derby.
The way Gallery Furniture sport betting promotions work is that customers are asked to buy a specific amount of furniture, usually between $3,000 and $6,000 dollars of furniture during a set window of time.
If Mattress Mack’s bet wins, customers get their money back with a refund or rebate. He uses sports bets as a hedge—if the team wins, the bet payout covers the refunds. If not, he keeps the furniture revenue.
Mack has been honing this strategy for years and started out by using promotional insurance companies. As sport betting became legal in 32 states, he now has a variety of outlets that he will use for his hedge bets.
Hole-in-One inspiration
Mack used Hole-in-One promotions as the inspiration for his hedge bet sports promotions.
“Well, I learned how to gamble when I was in Catholic elementary school, and we pitched quarters up against the wall. So that started my gambling career, and church bingo. I watched these Hole-in-One promotions, where you get $25,000 if you get a hole-in-one. I figured out they were hedging that.
“So, way back when the Houston Texans first burst in the NFL they were playing the Dallas Cowboys, who were the hated rivals. I decided I would do a promotion that said, if the Texans beat the Cowboys, and Texans were big underdogs in that game, and you bought furniture before that, you got your money back.
“We’d never made a million dollars in sales in a day before, and I think that Saturday we did about one million. It was incredible how many people came in to buy furniture and to get their money back if the Texans won.
“At halftime, the Texans were up 14 to nothing. I had no hedge on that bet. I was covering it all, and I was very nervous. Well, I ended up with the Texas loss. So, I won that promotion,” Mack declared.
“Put on your big boy pants”
“Several years later, Denver was playing Seattle in the Super Bowl in New York. These guys that worked for me were huge Peyton Manning fans, and Denver was like, eight or nine points favorites, and these guys convinced me there’s no way Denver could lose that game.
“So, we did a promotion for two weeks before the Super Bowl that said, if the team from Seattle wins the game because they’re a big underdog, you get your money back. I didn’t hedge that one either.
“We thought we’re going to get three or four million in business. We did $10 million in business. The Saturday before the Super Bowl, we did so much business we sold every piece of furniture in the whole store. We had to close down Super Bowl Sunday because we had no furniture to sell.
“We have a gym in the warehouse. I was in the gym knowing I had a $9 million liability, and I’m on the treadmill. I was very nervous for about two hours, and when none of the warehouse guys were coming by high fiving me, I knew I was in trouble. Finally, my wife called me up on my cell phone. I picked up the phone. I said, ‘Who won?’ She said, ‘Seattle won. You son of a bitch, and we’re out nine million dollars.’ So that was an interesting way to start my sports promotion history, “Mack said.
“You win some, you lose some. Sometimes you win, sometimes you get rained out. If you’re going to gamble, you’ve got to be able to put your big boy or big girl pants on and take some bad beats,” Mack related.
“That’s why we’re here”
“In 2017, the Astros were in the World Series against the Dodgers. Then the deal was, if you purchase the mattress for $3000 you get a full refund. That was way back at the start of the expansion of sports gambling across the country. There weren’t many places where you could hedge the bet. I had to go to New Jersey, had to go to Las Vegas. I was flying around the country trying to hedge off that $17 million that I earned on that promotion.
“I will never forget being in Las Vegas hedging off bets at several different sports books the night of the final game seven in Los Angeles, and the Astros won. Thank God. So, we bet $17 million dollars, gave back $17 million to customers, and we made a lot of happy customers, and at the end of the day, that’s why we’re here,” Mack related.
“It happens”
In 2019, the Astros were playing the Nationals in the World Series. Mack put up $11 million worth of bets and they lost, but he made $20 million in furniture sales.
“Yeah, it worked out. You know, it would have been better had the Astros won. That was the one of the best Astro teams of all time. I think they won like 113 games regular season. So that was a tough loss, but it happens,” Mack relented.
Winning the biggest sport bet of all time
In 2022, the Houston Astros were again in the World Series against the Philadelphia Phillies. The promotion was to spend $3,000 on furniture and, if the Astros won the World Series, the customers would get their money back.
Mack bet $10 million dollars at various sports books. If Astros won, Mack would win $75 million dollars. I asked Mack if that was the largest sports bet win in history. “It’s the largest winning bet that I know of,” Mack replied.
Wheelbarrow
As a promoter’s promoter, Mack decided to collect some of his winnings in cash in a wheelbarrow.
“That was my idea, and we rolled the wheelbarrow to the private plane to fly it back to Texas. We had quite an event the next night when we gave back all the money to the customers. We won $75 million, refunded $75 million. Everybody was deliriously happy. Had a lot of the players here for the refund party. It was great,” Mack said with a smile.
I asked Mack if he was happy being known across the country, outside of Houston, for his large sports bets.
“It’s all tied into the furniture business. So, it’s been a lot of fun doing that. People get a kick out of it. And as long as it’s good marketing, I’ll keep doing it. I have no problem with winning. I have no problem with losing. I just want to be in the game,” Mack said.
Customers for life
I asked Mack if the sports promotions work. Do they sell furniture for you?
“Yes, they definitely sell furniture. They’re especially attractive for mattresses, and that’s where the emphasis has been most of the time. Over the last 15 years we’ve been doing these sports promotions they really help us sell better quality mattresses. The people are delighted. They’re delighted if they win, and if they don’t win, they still had a good time sweating the game.
“It’s a good promotion, and it’s something that’s pretty easy to hedge,” Mack said.
“Once customers get their money back, we created a customer for life. A picture is worth 1,000 words, but an experience is worth 1,000 pictures. When they experience getting their money back, it’s big-time advertising. That’s why we do these sports promotions, because when they win, they tell everybody, and they send their pictures all over Facebook and Instagram. So, the best advertising we can get is giving money back to customers,” Mack declared.
“Living is giving”
Mack said he got the inspiration for his deep ingrained charity work from his parents.
“My parents’ lives were dedicated to family, church, community. That’s the way my father was. He gave away money. He helped people when he had nothing to give. He taught me that the essence of living is indeed giving,” Mack said.
Mack’s dedication to the Houston community is endless.
WorkTexas at Gallery Furniture aims to enhance and develop the skills of youth in the community. Mack gives multiple donations to medical charities including helping to purchase the first mobile stroke unit for the Texas Medical Center, purchasing and donating a high-water rescue vehicle, ACE Scholarships (a nonprofit organization that raises funds to provide financial scholarships to students in need), donations of furniture to homeless shelters, and annual Christmas furniture giveaways to distressed families and organizations.
Girl Scout cookies
This year, Mack declared that he would buy $500 worth of Girl Scout cookies from any troupe that took his challenge to learn how to sell Girl Scout cookies.
“I bought about 30 copies of Green Eggs and Ham, that great Dr Seuss book. We planned to read that book and teach them how to sell. I put out a little internet mention that said, any troop needs to sell cookies, I’ll buy $500 worth of cookies from each troop. And that went viral, and it was a madhouse.
“We budgeted $20,000 for Girl Scout cookies. We bought $128,000 worth of Girl Scout cookies. Thank God they don’t spoil because now I have a lifetime supply of Girl Scout cookies to give out,” Mack said.
Health scares
In 2024, Mack experienced health scares that demonstrated his ability to bounce back. He passed out in the parking lot of Galley Furniture and started “talking gibberish” and was sent to the hospital for what they reported as “cognitive Issues”. It turns out he had an infection. In true “Mattrass Mack” fashion, he could not let the opportunity slip by without conducting interviews directly from his hospital bed.
“Yeah, I had cellulitis, and I had to let the people know what was wrong with me. I had to tell them that it would really help me feel better if they went to buy some furniture. And they did.
“Then I had open heart surgery on December 10, 2014. It worked and I woke up six hours later. I was in good shape. When I was in the hospital, I got my MacZcliner delivered to the hospital room. The hospital let me put it there. I recovered in that MacZcliner, and since then we have sold several thousand MacZcliners because I advertised it from my hospital room,” he said.
Big bets
Mack continues to place large wagers outside of his promotional programs. Published reports state that he recently bet one million dollars on the Texas Longhorns to win the College Football National Championship and a half million dollars on various bets on the Houston Texans.
Legacy
I asked Mattress Mack, winner of the $75 million dollar sports bet that was the biggest payout in history, what he thought his legacy would be and what he would like his life to teach.
“Here’s a guy that went for it, who led a life like ‘YOLO. You Only Live Once’. So go for it,” Mack said.
Special message for gamblers
Finishing my interview with Mack, he had a special message for me to convey to the readers of CDC Gaming. And it was vintage Mack.
Mack said, “Tom, you tell all those gamblers out there that I sell Tempur-Pedic mattresses. I sell Made in America furniture all over the country. Call my cell number 281-844-1963.
“Buy it from me over the phone. We’ll deliver it to you all across the country. Free, free. Free. Any order of $10,000 or more, delivered free. So next time you make a big score gambling, call me and get some great home furniture that is made in America. And I ain’t worried about no tariff.”
Entries in the Faces of Gaming series:
- Mattress Mack – Furniture mogul, marketing genius, sports betting champ (now reading)
- Jeff Connor, owner of Lockdogs – A better mousetrap
- Antonio Perez – An optimistic realist
- Kara Napolitano – Human rights advocate and trafficking expert
- Next Gaming CEO and skill-based slots evangelist Mike Darley
- Dennis Conrad – Executive, founder, creator, speaker, author, columnist, and innovator
- Adam Wiesberg – A journey from sign salesman to dealer to El Cortez GM
- Gary Ellis – Las Vegas entrepreneur
- Alan Feldman – From Mirage and MGM to responsible gaming expert
- John Acres – the Thomas Edison of gaming
- Alex Alvarado — Vice President, Casino Operations at MGM National Harbor and Casino Aficionado
- Lauren Bates — A successful VP at Konami and Chair of Global Gaming Women, all before her 40th birthday
- TJ Tejeda and EZ Baccarat – Reimagining a centuries-old game
- Chris Andrews — Don’t cry for the bookmaker
- Wes Ehrecke — From gasohol and pork chops to president of the Iowa Gaming Association
- Steve Browne – Casino philosopher, master gaming instructor and father of a rocket scientist
- Noah Acres – Shaking up the industry one player record at a time
- Kate Chambers – ICE queen, casino exhibition maven and keeper of fairy dust
- Joe Asher — From the newsstand and racetrack to sports-betting icon
- Paul Speirs-Hernandez — Randomness, chance, reward, and luck
- Ainsworth’s Deron Hunsberger — From finance and sales to president
- Roger Gros — Chronicler of the gaming industry for four decades and counting
- Debi Nutton — Everi board member, gaming trailblazer
- Cache Creek’s Kari Stout-Smith — Dancing backwards in high heels
- Andrew Economon — Making downtown Las Vegas cool again
- Richard Marcus — From the wrong side of the casino tables to the right
- Willy Allison — From New Zealand bloke to world game-protection leader
- Tom Jingoli — From gaming enforcement agent to COO of Konami Gaming
- Tino Magnatta — Interviewing the interviewer, 3,000 and counting since COVID
- Deana and Brady Scott — Still talking shop with the owners of Raving Consulting
- Kevin Parker — “Putting everything into everything I do”
- Laura Penney — Putting in the Work as CEO of Coeur d’Alene Casino
- Andre Carrier — Paying it forward
- Jean Scott — The original casino influencer, still frugal gambling after all these years
- Anika Howard — From Harrah’s First Interactive Employee to CEO of Wondr Nation
- Anthony Curtis — Gambling Guru, Las Vegas Expert, Customer Advocate with Street Cred
- Mark Wayman — An executive recruiter with a brand and something to say
- Melonie Johnson — From rural Louisiana to resort-casino leadership
- Brian Christopher — From actor, Uber driver, and cater waiter to slot celebrity
- Allan Solomon — From accountant and tax lawyer to pioneering casino owner
- Kenny Epstein — A Niche from Nostalgia
Tom Osiecki is a casino consultant who writes an occasional column for CDC Gaming called Faces of Gaming, about interesting and engaging people in the gaming industry.
Tom Osiecki is a marketing and management consultant for Raving Consulting and can be reached for consulting engagements at 775-329-7864.
If you know of a fascinating personality in the gaming industry you would like to see profiled, please send Tom Osiecki an email at tosiecki@cdcgaming.com
