Mattress Mack vs. Spanky: Why is Caesars Favoring One Over the Other?
Published on:
Nov/01/2021
Why is a sports bettor from Texas allowed to wager $2 million on a sporting event while another sports bettor, in New Jersey, can’t even put $50,000 on a game?
That’s what Gadoon “Spanky” Kyrollos wants to know.
Last month, a furniture store chain owner in Houston named Jim McIngvale made news when it was revealed that he had made a $2 million futures bet on the Houston Astros to win the World Series, a wager that would pay out $20 million if it hit.
McIngvale, nicknamed “Mattress Mack”
after one of the staples he sells at his stores, made his wager with a legal Caesars-owned sportsbook.
Meanwhile, Kyrollos, who lives outside Jersey City, New Jersey, and makes his living as a professional sports bettor, was recently tossed out of another Caesars-owned sportsbook when he tried to bet $50,000 on a game.
“Why is he allowed to bet $2 million and I can’t even bet $50,000?” Kyrollos wondered during an exclusive interview with Gambling 911.
Then, answering his own question, Kyrollos lamented, “It’s because he is an amateur who doesn’t have a clue about sports betting and I am a professional who knows what he’s doing.
“If you don’t know what you’re doing, they welcome you with open arms. But if you do know what you’re doing, meaning you win more than you lose, they throw you out on your ass.“
Kyrollos has been ejected from numerous sportsbooks for winning too much, and at the ones where he is still allowed to bet, his wagering limits are severely restricted to very low levels.
Just last week, he asked a new Unibet-owned sportsbook in Pennsylvania if he could wager with them and was told: “The risk assessment division has declined your request.”
Another professional sports bettor, Los Angeles sportscaster Fred Wallin, who hosts a sports talk show on SiriusXM radio, weighed in on the controversy at Gambling 911’s request.
“I think doing something like this hurts the whole wagering industry,” Wallin said of the Caesars decision to limit some bettors but not others.
“Frankly, shame on them and it will come back to bite them at some point.”
Another professional sports bettor, who knows Kyrollos and didn’t want to be identified, told Gambling 911: “At least Spanky is being above board about things, and that’s what hurts him, being honest.
“He could easily hire a team of beards to make bets for him at various sportsbooks, but he doesn’t want to do that. He tells the sportsbooks who he is and what he wants to do betting-wise, and they either accept him or reject him.
“He doesn’t want to sneak around, even if it costs him money, and for that I admire him.”
By Tom Somach
Gambling 911 Chief Correspondent
