‘Mattress Mack’ Curse Is Real: Gambler Loses $9.5 Million Bengals Wager

The curse of “Mattress Mack” has to be taken seriously now after the legendary gambler placed a bet on the Cincinnati Bengals to win Super Bowl LVI.

Jim McIngvale, the furniture store owner and infamous bettor better known as Mattress Mack, placed not one, but two separate bets on the Bengals to take home the Lombardi Trophy. His first came Feb. 3, when he bet $4,534,000 on the Bengals, who were +170 at Caesars Sportsbook at the time. On Friday morning, he bet an additional $5 million on Cincinnati — which reportedly was the biggest Super Bowl bet in history at the time.

McIngvale stood to win more than $21 million if Cincinnati ended up winning. But the Los Angeles Rams came back to take a 23-20 victory.

That’s bad news not only for the Texas-based furniture magnate, but also for his customers, as he would have refunded those who spent at least $3,000 at his store had he come away with a win. It was the same offer he made when he spent roughly $13 million in bets on the Houston Astros to win the World Series — which they did not.

McIngvale also recently has lost monster bets on Alabama, which lost to Georgia in the national championship, and the New England Patriots, whom McIngvale had $2 million in futures bets on to win the Super Bowl.

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