Super Bowl betting: Mack is back; Warren’s gambling problem

According to one online-betting site, Super Bowl odds are staying firm, with the Kansas City Chiefs 1.5-point favorites to win. “Last minute odds are some of the best,” it claims. Not when they’re as static as these. Speaking of “the Big Game” (ugh!) my all-time favorite press release came after the New England Patriots drove into the end zone to beat the Atlanta Falcons for the national championship in overtime. Just before the Patriots’ winning play, Fox Sports flashed a chyron that said, “New England Wins Super Bowl with a Touchdown.” One self-appointed expert extrapolated from this a theory that the outcome of the game was rigged, a finding he blasted all over the Internet. Aside from the Falcons having to throw a match in humiliating fashion, for such a fix to be in would require a conspiracy so vast it would make the JFK assassination look like the work of a lone gunman.

As for that rumored $1 million bet on the San Francisco 49ers, well, “Mattress Mack” McIngvale is back and he’s putting a cool million on the underdogs. The reasoning may be more visceral than empirical: According to Yahoo News, John M. “has been betting against the Kansas City Chiefs this postseason and paying dearly for it.” Unfortunately for him, the odds are so short that whatever he wins—if he does—won’t set his losses more than half right. (What’s that casino execs say about “chasing losses”?) Continues the story, “His bet on the 49ers was on the moneyline at plus-120 odds, which means the 49ers need to win straight up to take home a $1.2 million profit on the $1 million bet.” McIngvale’s already down $2 million for betting against the Chiefs and for the Houston Texans and Tennessee Titans.

Mattress Mack’s postseason run of ill-fortune is nothing compared to the $12 million bath he took on the Houston Astros to win the World Series. He says the profits from his bedding stores more than made up for it but that’s somewhat beside the point. He’s using his wagers to promote his chain, tweeting “Buy a Tempur-Pedic Sleep Set of $3,000 or more and if the team from San Francisco WINS the BIG GAME on Sunday, February 2nd in Miami, receive 50% of YOUR MONEY BACK or 100% back in IN-STORE CREDIT!” It should be noted that McIngvale is a beloved figure in the Houston area for his charitable works. Tilman Fertitta, are you paying attention?

* Not to delve too deeply into the presidential election but the National Review has opened a drowsy eye and belatedly noticed Sen. Elizabeth Warren‘s gyrations on the issue of casino gambling, tribal or otherwise. The Democratic senator used to be in prim opposition to casinos in her state of Massachusetts and even supported their repeal. At the time, Warren said, “You have to remember, I come to the question of gambling from a background in bankruptcy and what happens economically to families. It’s a tough call to make. People need jobs, but gambling can also be a real problem, economically, for a lot of people. I didn’t support gambling the first time around and I don’t expect to support it.” Fast-forward to 2019 and Warren is one of the prime supporters of a bill that would bypass Carcieri v. Salazar and award the Mashpee Wampanoags a casino in Taunton. It died a quiet death in Mitch McConnell‘s Senate but its ghost is coming back to haunt Warren.

“Very bad for Indians,” tweeted Donald Trump, no friend of Native Americans himself, when in fact the bill would have supplied a valuable chisel for tribes seeking to chip away at Carcieri. As Warren  put it, “The question about the Wampanoags’ land is a powerfully important historical question. And for the federal government to deny them control over this land and refuse to take this land into trust for the Wampanoag is something that is not only bad for that tribe, it is bad for tribal nations across the country.” Amen to that much.

Now a PAC going by the suspiciously starchy and theocratic name of “Coalition to Restore American Values” (And what might be those?) is running an attack ad on Warren, tying her to convicted felon Jack Abramoff, Wampanoag corruption and—worst of all—Malaysians. Gasp! We have little sympathy for Warren. Her flip-flopping on casinos practically begged for the skewering it will get. However, morality groups who go around raising the casino bogeyman (in borderline-racist terms, no less) will find no warm fuzzies in this corner.

* The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino is going out with a bang, specifically the “Oscars of porn,” which were held there on Jan. 25. Unable to resist this low-hanging fruit of a news story, the Daily Beast had a correspondent on the scene. And a wild time was had by all. According to the story, “massive amounts of porn [were] being created behind door after door in the hotel … All the crazy orgies and wild sex you would expect to happen at the AVN Awards are happening, but it’s all being monetized with every adult performer in the industry filming“content trades” with each other to create their own sources of revenue.” Maybe it’s because my hormones are waning but it’s hard to get too worked up about this. What happens in Vegas has long since been live-stream on the Web. Oh, you could be at the AVNs in person and buy a “used” ping-pong ball (and we don’t want to know for what it was used) but actual attendance seems almost superfluous.

Jottings: In a press release described as “bizarre,” Villa Italian Kitchen in Las Vegas announced it would offer free pizza if the New England Patriots win the Super Bowl—an eventuality that would be even more miraculous than the Second Coming. But think of the money Villa will save … Good news for Jim Murren: His favored president candidate, Joe Biden (D) got a B+ from Greenpeace. Highest marks went to Bernie Sanders [I] with an A+ … Scratch a bit of Vegas history. Roberto’s Taco Shop is closing its original location and moving to new quarters across from UNLV on Maryland Parkway. They make a mean chicken taco … Aside from documented cases of coronavirus in the U.S. and other countries, the outbreak is inflicting collateral damage: a surge in anti-Chinese racism. That’s abhorrent, to say the least.